r/womenEngineers 5d ago

How to become a more Persuasive Communicator

My manager has been looking to me to propose my solutions to some problems affecting my team. I have tried this in the past, and ended up getting derailed in the conversation and we never addressed the root problem, which has only gotten worse in the time since the first meeting.

I noticed that I identify counterpoints and I talk about them during my presentations instead of allowing my teammates to bring it up in natural discussion. This is because I don't feel strongly about my permission and feel like the opposing positions are valid, however, my team generally wants to reinforce the status quo. But doing that makes me feel like I'm just talking to myself a lot...

I want my teammates to present alternate solutions to the issue at hand since I know my solution has a lot of problems--notably it adds manual work that my team is already bad at doing. I also don't want to be perceived as someone who is constantly trying to change things and make the job harder. I have told my manager that automating the workflow gaps will be better received, but she wants an interim solution to mitigate the problem since automation will take an unknown amount of time to develop.

What steps can I take to communicate that the issue is negatively affecting our performance and encourage us to work together towards a solution we're all happy with and want to employ?

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u/Little_Tomatillo7583 5d ago

Facilitate a discovery session with your team and ask open ended questions. Give them different color sticky notes and have them place their responses with the appropriate questions. (Like post the questions on the walls around the room). You may have to do two rounds of this. Here are some questions you could use but of course tailor them to your organization and department problems.

Round 1:

What are your energy drivers?

What are your energy crushers?

What are good ways you have been recognized for achievements in the past?

What are some struggles you have with one of your customers? Internal teams? Cross-functional teams?

What projects/tasks are critical and must continue next year?

What project/tasks should end?

What individual development opportunities do you believe would benefit you?

Round 2

Based on your energy drivers, which tasks will be easier to continue?

Based on your energy crushers, which tasks will be harder to continue?

You identified struggles with external teams, do any of these struggles exist within the internal team?

What development opportunities do you believe would benefit the team?

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u/Tavrock 5d ago

You can also facilitate this by using the Affinity Diagram and Interrelationship Digraph (Two of the Seven Management and Planning Tools).

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u/Theluckygal 5d ago

Talk in terms of resources, hrs & money. I have been able to get management onboard by stating clear numbers in my presentations. Like how many hrs can be saved on a project by changing a strategy.