Chapter 12: How to Communicate with People Whose Help You Need

Reality Check

In the last chapter we described a team that identified the need to consolidate all monthly reporting into a single report. During the course of the project, the team discovered that different departments were taking credit for the same revenue, resulting in the CFO significantly overstating company earnings. While the CFO’s position relative to the team didn’t change from the beginning to the end of the project—he still openly supported it—his interests naturally shifted.

The team used the Checklist: Identifying Your Project Stakeholders’ Interests to help them identify what the CFO’s underlying interests might be. His original interests were to reduce both the time and effort required to analyze the monthly reports, and the potential for error that resulted from having different reports for each department. As the team progressed, and their analysis uncovered the unexpected issue of overstated earnings, the CFO’s interests shifted to not being seen as responsible for the overstatement and, finally, to keeping his job. After reviewing what they knew about the CFO and having a confidential discussion with the Master Black Belt (a long-time colleague to the CFO), the team concluded that the CFO’s need to be seen as competent and valuable to the organization was a stronger interest than his need to save face.

The team then used the Checklist: Influence Strategies to identify an appropriate strategy for getting the CFO’s support. They decided on a strategy of asking for much more direct involvement of the CFO in uncovering the extent of the problem and communicating the issues and solutions to the organization. The CFO responded to the team’s request, and the project was able to continue.