How This Sr Product Manager Turned a Stubborn Peer into a Key Project Ally

OK. Is it, is it OK to go back to some other uh examples I've already talked about, or do you prefer that I, it's up to you. Because I, I mean, for me the the best example for this question is. Is the project that I did uh in Dubai where I had the one manager who was in his position for 20 years. It was incredibly difficult to have him even partially convinced to start with, to even listen, actually. Um, and so your question is how did I go about bringing him on and get that buy-in. Yeah, so to start with, very difficult and He didn't understand why I was doing what I was doing or what it is that I was doing. Um, So just to give you context, he was a manager, then we had another manager above him. It was the manager above him who gave me the project, but then I had to deal with this manager and his team. So he wasn't convinced, he was very averse to what I was doing, he didn't understand what I was doing or why I was doing it. So to start with, I spent a lot of time chatting to him, speaking to him, um, you know, getting that kind of, Um, relationship built with him, because I knew he was absolutely going to resist what I'm doing, and to do that I actually tried to create that kind of less formal, more friendly kind of relationship, firstly to start with, just to start with, just to kind of loosen him up a little bit and liken him up to me as well. And then after that, um, with time, it was always making sure that he, he was seeing what I was doing and that I wasn't doing absolutely anything under his nose. He was always kept in the loop. I always, almost did it as if I was asking for his permission, keeping him as if he's driving the project. So I'm, I'm explaining to him like, hey, you know, I saw the operators are working on this kind of schedule where they don't seem to be too keen on staying in that, on that side of the, of the lab for too long, so what do you think, how do you think we, but actually I already have that solution prepared and I kind of just throw it out to him once I've offered him the problem and then the solution. So that was the kind of way, so it was a very slow, organic kind of build-up and then eventually when I had the data as well and, To work with and to show him and. And get that buy-in from him.

Honestly, it, it, it was, it was, uh, literally you know, trying to be friendly, not, not being in a formal relationship, not being as like a colleague, um, you know, laughing together, we, you know, or inviting him for like a, you know, interested in a coffee. Um, bringing a coffee down to him, um, asking him how, how he, you know, without trying to be too cliche as well, like whether you would be with a colleague, like how was your day, but, um. Take it, I think also he, he liked uh this one like. This one style of, he, he was Indian, this one style of Indian sweets, so there used to be one that was um on the way to my, on, on the way to work, there used to be a shop that sold, sold it. So I sometimes took, took him some of these as well, and then I also would share it to the operators to try and show that I'm not only trying to like, you know, treat him in one way and everyone else in another way, so that he doesn't get any suspicions, but again, it was just that kind of like I'm not here against you, I'm with you, we're together. Um, Yeah.

Um, well, because the thing is, he, he was by default very defensive. Um, I think because through the years he's had, um, he's had to resist a lot from other teams, um, and he's very protective of his team. So whenever an outside, whenever an outside party comes in, he immediately kind of like wraps his hands around his team and himself and shuts himself off. So for me, it was a very, very, You know, prerequisite step to at least have him open up his arms, sit with him, chat with him, spend a bit of time with him, understand what he thinks, how he thinks, also leveling with him, um, I think this is an important point which I missed, um, I mean the suites is one thing, but that's hardly the reason why he, he did open up, I mean, also understanding what, what his pain was, you know, which, which other teams, which other departments were bothering him. You know, in a, in a, in a formal way, so like which of the teams were bothering him, why? Where was the pressure coming from, um, what is it that they think he's, he's resisting from them, and then trying to kind of see eye to eye with him, agreeing with him on if I did agree, um, and yeah. Exactly. And so what was the outcome? Well, in the end we, we managed to go through with the project, with the project, and then we actually changed the workflow, so the way the operators were working, because if I didn't have the buying from him or the resistance from him, I would have never been able to actually change the way his team works. He's very protective over his team. So getting him to, to like, to take a liking to me, and to accept what I come in with and whatever suggestion I might come in with, despite all the resistance he's had over the last few years with every, with every other team. Um, in the end, I was able to change the layout or the format of the way the, the, the, the operators were working, and he was fine with it. And to a degree, because I needed um to make sure that he would sustain whatever changes I made once I've gone, because it's very easy to revert back to the, to the, to the old habits, of course. So by me making sure he likes what I'm doing, he's interested in what I'm doing, uh, starting by, you know, making him, you know, see eye to eye with me. That he would continue to keep those changes sustained, um, and, and, and it, and it did, it continued and, and we managed to keep the productivity up to, to, to a 17% increase. So. OK

We managed to change the workflow. Without his buy-in I could not have changed how his team worked. I needed his support to implement what I brought in. In the end I was able to change how the operators were working, and he was OK with it. More importantly it was important to know that he wouldn't change things back straightaway. We managed to maintain the increased productivity.