Every day, I have to play two critical roles. I'm both an educator and an enforcer.
The hardest part isn't either job. The hardest part is finding the right balance between them.
My goal is make change happen and the one thing I can't do without is a team. If I lean too hard on enforcement, I risk resentment. If I focus too much on education, I'll barely make any progress.
When teams feel dictated to rather than understood, they disengage and push back. There's compliance and there's commitment. Compliance is superficial and without long-term adoption. Commitment on the other hand is what you get when you involve your team in the decision making process.
For example, when I imposed strict deadlines without explaining why, all I got was a frustrated team. They dragged the issues on and on and we never implemented anything.
I then went overboard with education. I thought they didn't know how to implement changes.
So I had countless training session and endless discussions. They understood the concepts and best practices, but because there was always another best practice to discuss, we never really implemented anything. It was all theoretical.
The solution lies in adapting to what the team needs. And even those needs change over time. Adapt, adapt, adapt.
- When everyone's resistant, educate first. Clarify the why behind changes you're proposing.
- When they’re passive but compliant, you're missing commitment. Discuss deadlines and structure and then enforce the process everyone agreed to. Then follow up.
Nowadays, I find myself reflecting more and more on my approach. Am I wearing the right hat? I always feel I need to adjust the dial between education and enforcement. Or risk losing both understand and action.