Have you ever had an idea that everyone agreed was a good idea… after it was too late?

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You did the analysis. You gathered the data. You built the business case. Maybe you even created the world's most beautiful PowerPoint deck.

 

And then someone said:

"You really should have talked to Susan three months ago."

 

Ouch.

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If you've ever watched a great improvement idea stall because it reached the wrong people—or reached the right people too late—this episode is for you.

In this episode of Thoughts on Change, we're continuing the C.H.A.N.G.E. Shaper™ series with the G: Get to the Right People.

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Because here's one of the hardest lessons many Continuous Improvement practitioners eventually learn:

Great ideas don't spread because they're great. They spread because the right people believe in them.

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What You'll Learn

Many of us believe our job is to build the best possible solution. So we gather more data. Create better presentations. Answer every possible objection.

 

But the quality of the solution is only part of the equation.

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In this episode, I explore:

• Why talking to the wrong person first can quietly kill even your best ideas

• The difference between decision makers and true influencers

• How to identify the people who can accelerate—or unintentionally derail—your change effort

• Why involving people early creates stronger solutions and less resistance

• The role curiosity plays in building influence

• A practical stakeholder mapping exercise you can use on your very next project

 

The Right Person Changes Everything

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One of the stories I share comes from early in my career. I believed I'd found a simple way to eliminate a costly source of scrap that was wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. My manager liked the idea—but didn't think Engineering would approve it. Engineering wasn't convinced either. The project should have ended there. Instead, I kept asking questions until I found someone else: a product test technician who understood exactly what evidence the design engineers would need before they'd support the change.

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That single conversation completely changed the outcome.

 

A few months later, the engineers approved the design change, the problematic parts were eliminated, and the savings became reality.

 

The lesson wasn't that my idea became better.

 

The lesson was that I finally found the right person.

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Four Questions Every Change Leader Should Ask

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Rather than guessing who should be involved, I recommend asking four simple questions:

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1. Who feels the problem?

The people living with the frustration already understand why change matters.

They bring urgency that data alone never can.

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2. Who owns the resources?

Who controls the budget, people, equipment, time, or attention needed to make the change happen?

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Excitement doesn't fund projects.

Resources do.

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3. Who influences the decision?

The organization chart tells you who approves.

The influence chart tells you who shapes the approval.

Those aren't always the same people.

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4. Who could accidentally stop this?

This may be the most overlooked question.

Who might feel surprised?
Who might lose something?
Who might unintentionally create resistance simply because they weren't involved early enough?

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Thinking through these questions before launching your idea dramatically increases your chances of success.

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A Common Mistake I See Women in CI Make

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Many women in Continuous Improvement wait until an idea is fully polished before sharing it.

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We want every answer. Every data point. Every possible objection addressed.

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Unfortunately, while we're perfecting the solution, nobody else even knows it exists. Then we unveil it… only to discover someone could have pointed out an important concern weeks earlier.

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I've done this more than once.

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What I've learned is that involving the right people earlier rarely weakens an idea.

It almost always makes it stronger. People are far more likely to support something they helped shape.

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Reflection Questions

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As you think about the change effort you're currently leading, ask yourself:

• Who actually feels the problem I'm trying to solve?

• Who controls the resources needed to solve it?

• Who truly influences the decision makers?

• Who could unintentionally create resistance if I leave them out?

• Which important conversation have I been avoiding?

• Am I spending more time refining my idea than sharing it with the people who matter?

 

The Big Takeaway

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Successful change leaders don't just build great solutions.

 

They intentionally build relationships with the people who can help those solutions succeed.

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Ideas don't spread through organizations because they're logical. They spread through conversations, trust, influence, and involvement. When you consistently get your ideas in front of the right people, at the right time, in the right way, your influence grows—and so does your ability to create meaningful change.

 

Coming Next

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Next up, we wrap up the C.H.A.N.G.E. Shaper™ series with the final letter:

E: Energize Positive Momentum

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Starting change is only the beginning. The real challenge is creating the energy that keeps it moving long after the kickoff meeting is over.

 

Links:

Video

C.H.A.N.G.E. Shaper™

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Transcript:

Have you ever had an idea that everyone agreed was a good idea after it was too late? Maybe you spent weeks collecting data. Maybe you built the business case. Maybe you even ran a pilot. And maybe you put together the world's most beautiful PowerPoint deck. And then someone looked at it and said, Oh, you should have talked to Susan about three months ago. Ouch. If you've ever had that happen, today's episode is for you. Today we're diving into the G in Change Shaper: getting to the right people. Change doesn't spread through organizations because an idea is good. It spreads because the right people believe in it. Welcome to Thoughts on Change, the podcast about the messy, political, emotional, deeply human side of leading change. I'm Kelly, and I believe anyone can implement lead tools until they actually have to get people to use them. Around here, we talk about how to move culture, how to build credibility, and how to influence without bulldozing. Basically, how to herd humans without losing your mind. Last episode, we talked about navigating the business environment. We talked about priorities, we talked about timing, we talked about influence, we talked about social capital. Now we're taking the next logical step. Once you understand how influence flows through your organization, you need to intentionally engage the people who can help your ideas move. Yes, this sounds obvious, but I see people miss this all the time. In fact, I used to miss it all the time. I thought my job was to build a great solution. Then I thought my job was to explain that great solution. Then I thought my job was to explain it better. Then I thought maybe I needed more data. Then maybe a few more slides. I mean, clearly the problem couldn't be that I was talking to the wrong people, right? Wrong. One of the hardest lessons I learned is that the quality of your solution matters far less than when and where you introduce it. You can have a brilliant idea. And if the wrong person hears it first, it dies. You can have a mediocre idea, and if the right people hear it first, it grows legs and starts running around the organization. Now, before anyone gets upset, I'm not saying quality doesn't matter. I am saying quality alone isn't enough. Let me share a story about how this played out for me. I was three years into my working life and at my second organization. And one of the problems I saw that was costing my team a lot of money was scrap from these really small pins made out of specialty materials. When I investigated the problem further, I learned that the assembly machine, where all of that scrap was being generated, ran three of these small pins really well. But the other two were a problem. And that's where most of the scrap was coming from. Now, instead of working on the machine to accommodate the other two pins more effectively, I had what I thought was this brilliant idea of just using the three pins that ran well and getting rid of the two that didn't. And I went to my leader at the time and shared my brilliance with him. His reaction wasn't bad, but it wasn't the glowing commendation I was hoping for. He said it was a good thought, but that there was no way I would get it through engineering, since it would mean changing the design of the product. So I went to the engineers. They also were not blown away by my brilliant idea. They were really skeptical. And looking back on it, this idea should have died right there. But I kept searching for a way, and eventually I talked with a product test technician. Now, this guy had all of the influence with the design engineers and knew exactly what I would have to do to convince them this was a good idea and that it wouldn't affect the product quality at all. So I went to work. A few months later, I presented the test data that the technician recommended to those engineers and they signed off on the change immediately. We got rid of those two pesky pins that were leading to so much scrap. Boom. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings per year. I just had to find the right person to help that idea along. So let's talk about how to identify those right people. To do this, I have a series of questions for you to consider. Okay, question one: who feels the problem? This is usually where I start. Who experiences the pain? Who gets frustrated by it? Who has to work around it every day? Who is asleep because of it? These people matter because they have something not everybody else has: urgency. They don't need convincing that the problem exists. They live it. Whenever possible, start here. Go understand their experience, connect with them, be curious, help them articulate what is really happening. Notice how all of those previous letters of the chain shaper are showing up already. All right, to question two: who owns the resources? This is where many improvement efforts hit a wall. The people feeling the pain are often not the people who can allocate time, money, people, equipment, or attention. You need to identify who controls the resources required to solve the problem. This doesn't mean you start with them, but you absolutely need to understand who they are. I've seen teams spend months building excitement around a solution only to discover they never involved the one leader who controlled the budget. That is a painful lesson, and exactly where I almost floundered in my pin change. All right, now question three: who influences the decision? This is different from who makes the decision. Remember our conversation about influence charts not being the same as organization charts? The person signing the approval may not be the person shaping the approval. Let me give you a quick example. A plant manager might technically approve an initiative, but before they approve it, they might ask, what does operations think? What does quality think? What does engineering think? What does Mary think? Now all of a sudden Mary's opinion matters a whole lot, even though Mary doesn't have approval authority. This is why mapping influence is so critical. That decision maker isn't always the key player. Sometimes a trusted advisor is. This is where I would encourage you all to map out who the decision maker is and then who they listen to. This may take a little time to uncover, but you will be very glad you did this. Okay, question four. Who could accidentally kill this? This is my favorite question, and honestly, it's the one most people forget, and I forget it too sometimes. But whenever you start a significant change effort, ask who could stop this without meaning to? Who could delay this? Who could create friction? Who could feel threatened by this? Who might see this as creating more work? And who might lose something if this succeeds? If you ignore these people, they don't disappear. They simply become surprised later. And surprise is one of the fastest ways to create resistance. I surprised those engineers with my idea of doing away with the two pin sizes, and this should have killed that idea. But I was lucky that I thought about saving them time by going to the technician who ended up being the real influencer for that change. Now, I want to be really clear about something. Getting to the right people is not about building a coalition against other people. It's not about collecting votes, it's not about manipulation. It's about understanding who needs to be involved for a change effort to succeed. And there's a big difference. One is kind of slimy, and the other is real leadership. And here's a mistake I see women in CI in particular make. We wait until our idea is fully formed before we share it. We want it to be perfect. We want all of the data, all of the answers. We want to make sure nobody can poke holes in it. So we spend months refining it. And during those months, nobody knows we're working on it. Then we finally unveil the finished idea, and someone immediately points out a concern or a blind spot that we could have learned about six weeks earlier. Does that sound familiar? I know it does for me because I've done it more than once. And what I've learned is that involving the right people early often produces a better solution and a better result. Not because they have all the answers, but because they have perspectives that we don't. And they understand how to get a change to actually make it. Remember all the way back to episode 10, where we talked about how to connect with curiosity and compassion. This is another place where curiosity wins. The goal is not to convince, the goal is to understand. And when you involve the right people early, they help shape that idea. And people support what they help create. Now, here's a practical exercise to use. Think of a change effort you're currently working on. Now get out a piece of paper and draw four circles on it. In the first circle, write people who feel the problem. In the second circle, write down people who own resources. In the third, write people who influence decisions. And in the fourth, write people who could accidentally block progress. Then start listing names in the circles. And once you've done that, note who shows up in multiple circles. Highlight them or star them, whatever you need to do, so that they jump out. And then ask yourself, who on these lists have I actually talked to? Most people discover there are several important conversations they haven't had yet, especially with the people who show up in multiple circles. This insight alone can dramatically improve your odds of success. So think about a project you're working on right now. Not one that's already successful, maybe the one that's frustrating you, the one that feels stuck, the one where you're wondering why nobody seems to care. And then ask yourself: have I gotten to the right people? Or have I only gotten to the convenient people? Because those are not the same thing. Sometimes the breakthrough isn't better data. Sometimes it isn't another meeting. Sometimes it isn't another presentation. Sometimes it's simply one conversation with the right person. So as you head back into your work, consider who actually feels the problem I'm trying to solve? Who controls the resources needed to solve it? Who actually influences the decision makers? And who could unintentionally create resistance if I leave them out? And importantly, which important conversation have I been avoiding? And am I spending more time refining my idea or sharing it with the people who matter? Great change leaders don't just have good ideas. They know where those ideas need to go. They understand who needs to be involved. They understand who needs to be informed. They understand who needs to be heard. And they're not afraid to roll up their sleeves and go have those conversations. Change spreads through people. And when you consistently get your ideas in front of the right people at the right time, in the right way, your influence grows dramatically. Next time, we'll wrap up our Chain Shaper series with the final letter E. Energize positive momentum. Because starting change is one thing, but keeping it moving is something else entirely. See you next time. That's a wrap for this episode of Thoughts on Change. If you're also out there trying to move culture instead of just installing tools, hit subscribe and share this with a fellow CI warrior. And remember, progress beats perfection, curiosity beats control, and culture beats everything. See you next time.