TALK ABOUT IT From a leader’s perspective, making time for staff and working with them on their ideas encourages them to manage up. It typically takes courage for staff to approach their boss with an idea—but staff must also take the right approach to managing up, which is a nuanced sit- uation depending on the boss’s person- ality and communication style. Are they casual or rigid? Can you just walk into their office, or do they require a formal calendar invite? In general, though, Murray said it’s important to be prepared for the boss to say “yes” to your request for time to talk about your idea. Before you ask for the boss’s time, plan how you’ll introduce the idea and frame the change you’d like to suggest. This will help earn buy-in. “Whatever you lead with, don’t say, ‘I want to change all the lesson times,’” for example, he said. “Don’t start with that. Start with, ‘I have an idea that I think we can get more people on the hill to learn to ski and enjoy their day.’ Now every- body’s head is shaking ‘yes.’” What’s the objective? What is this change going to mean either for the guest or others? “Have all of your back- ground ready, but stay super high-level executive summary,” said Unruh, who also relayed the importance of allowing
the leader you’re speaking with to ask questions. “Let me ask the things I want to know, and you’re way more likely to get a yes from me.” The suggested change also needs to fit within the construct of the resort’s overall stated direction, as well as its
“learning from what’s worked in the past, but also letting go of those things that are either no longer relevant, hav- en’t worked, or just could end up being noise,” he said. Thallner also reminded every- one that change often requires a shift
“YOU’RE NOT CHANGING BECAUSE THE OPERATIONS ARE BROKEN. YOU’RE CHANGING BECAUSE THERE’S A STRATEGY THAT’S DRIVING DEVELOPMENT.” — Kim Jones
limitations. “I need people to understand what our company’s priorities are and what our strategic objectives are, and tie it into that,” said WinSport’s Jones. “I’ve had lots of people bring forward their great ideas, but they don’t align with what our current priorities are, and we only have so many resources.” Don’t be afraid to bring outside-the- box ideas, she said, but make sure they can be tied back to your resort’s priorities.
in mindset. More specifically, Jones explained that part of a manager’s job is “helping people understand the differ- ence between strategy and operations,” she said. “When you’re talking about operations and people being stuck in a way of doing things, that’s a very opera- tional mindset.” Jones suggested having a dialogue with people and teaching them about strategic thinking, even having off-site sessions to get away from the operations and into “a strategic mindset” to help them understand strategy, “because strat- egy is the reason that you’re ahead,” she said. “You’re not changing because the operations are broken. You’re changing because there’s a strategy that’s driving development.”
LEARN FROM THE PAST, BUILD FOR TOMORROW
It’s fairly common for people to not see the value of change, especially when what they’re doing now works just fine. Thallner discussed what he called “selective preservation,” which involves
FROM PAUL THALLNER: HOW TO STAY AFLOAT DURING TIMES OF CHANGE 1. RECOGNIZE THAT CHANGE IS CONSTANT. Don’t treat change as an episode or something that’s neces- sarily foreseeable. It is happening all the time, all around us.
3. SELECTIVE PRESERVATION. There’s a delicate bal- ance between resting on one’s laurels and learning from the past—good leadership is understanding the difference. Learn from what’s worked in the past, and let go of the things that are either no longer relevant, haven’t worked, or are just noise. 4. WINNING WHILE WALKING. Instead of simply identi- fying a problem and fixing it, we must also build for tomorrow. Work on the things right in front of you while also planning ahead, thinking downstream, anticipating challenges, building organizational resilience, and being ready for whatever the future might hold. Some of it we can predict, some of it we cannot. But it’s important to be prepared.
2. PROACTIVE REINVENTION. Break it before some- one else does. In other words, we have to try new things and ensure that what we’re doing stays ahead of either competitors or custom- er needs. If you think that doing things the same way forever is going to be OK, you’ll probably get passed by. Use your resources to experiment before someone else comes up with the new thing. Change is a process, not a project.
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator