Executives skeptical of a change visit a comparable company that has made it, hear its leaders describe the costs and results, and come back with evidence their own staff could not supply.
An example
Every number the vice president of operations at a family-owned foodservice distributor showed the owners was dismissed as the vendor's. For a year she had tried to persuade them, and the head of the warehouse, to move order picking from paper to voice-directed systems. Through a trade association contact, she arranged for the three of them to spend a day at a non-competing distributor in another region that had switched two years earlier. Its general manager walked them through the floor, showed them accuracy before and after, and told them about the six months when productivity dropped and two veteran selectors quit. The head of the warehouse spent an hour with the selectors on the floor without anyone from management present. On the drive home the owners asked her to price a pilot for one shift.
Why it works
Visits make the change look better because the evidence comes from people in the same business who carried the risk themselves and have no stake in the visitors' decision. They make adoption easier because the practical questions get answered by people who have done it, including an honest account of what went wrong, which makes the good news believable. The host must be comparable, non-competing, candid, and successful, and the visitors must be the people whose doubts matter.
The thinking behind it
Robert B. Cialdini Influence (1984), Robert Cialdini's account of why people agree to things, includes social proof: uncertain people look to what others like them are doing and treat it as a guide to what is correct. A comparable company that has already made the change is exactly that kind of guide for skeptical executives, and the closer the host resembles the visitors in size and business, the more its experience counts with them.
Everett M. Rogers Everett Rogers's Diffusion of Innovations (1962) names observability, in later editions, as an attribute that speeds adoption: innovations whose results are visible to others spread faster. A day at a distributor that switched two years earlier makes the results observable on a working floor, with accuracy figures and selectors to talk to, which no vendor's slide could offer skeptical owners.
When it fits
Valuable when internal advocates are discounted, an outside company has made the same change, and the doubters are senior people who trust their own eyes. You need a contact who can open the door, a host willing to be frank, and enough standing to get busy executives to give up a day. Hosts that compete with you rarely say much worth hearing.
How to use it well
Find a host similar enough to count: same business, similar size, and no competitive conflict. Trade associations, suppliers, and former colleagues are the usual routes.
- Ask the host to talk about costs and failures as well as results.
- Bring the skeptics themselves; converts gain nothing from the trip.
- Give the visitors time with the people who do the work, without managers present.
- Debrief on the way back while it is fresh, and have the next step ready.
Offer the host something in return, such as a visit to your own operation.
What it costs and where it backfires
Visits cost time and favors, and the host may be less impressive than you hoped or describe problems that strengthen your opponents. Visitors sometimes come back with a different plan from the one you wanted. Pick an honest host. Choosing a company whose results do not transfer, or briefing the host to hide its problems, hands your opponents an easy rebuttal the first time someone picks up the phone.
When it is used on you
Ask how comparable the host really is when a rival takes decision-makers on a visit: size, market, systems, and starting point. Call another company that made the change and was not chosen as the host. Accept the evidence where it applies, and show where your conditions differ.