What's in it for me?

August 11, 2009 8:54 AM

How do I get coworkers to spend quality time with me? I am starting a new gig as a business analyst, and will be trying to convince strangers that they should meet with me to tell me about their jobs, needs, and requirements. After that I have to also get them to review the documentation I will create. What tactics have / would you use to get quality results from people who are busy and don't know you from Adam?
posted by jasondigitized to work & money (15 comments total)

Buy lunch. Lots and lots of lunch.

Bonus trick: expense it.
posted by rokusan at 8:56 AM on August 11 [4 favorites]

And not McDonald's lunch, either. Take them out to nicer places, and you're all set. Drinks might help, too.
posted by Grither at 8:58 AM on August 11

... and/or coffee. Whatever gets them talking. People's jobs are generally a huge part of their lives, so why wouldn't they want to talk about them, share their frustrations. Just get them comfortable and be tactfully curious.
posted by philip-random at 9:00 AM on August 11

It also helps to play up the "I'm here to make your job better/easier" aspect of what you're doing. Being truly interested and engaged when you talk to people goes a long way.
posted by Kimberly at 9:12 AM on August 11

Food. I would use quality baked goods and brought-in lunch food for the interviews, and then maybe some really good food (or gift cards, if there's budget for that kind of incentive) to review the documentation, because nobody will do that without a big carrot on your stick.

Also, for the documentation review, if you have the means to make them come sit in a meeting with you to review it, you may actually force them to read and respond. You can apply the food bribe during/after this meeting.

The other thing you need is highly-visible management buy-in. They have to convince employees that this isn't an exercise in finding people to lay off, except for the people who can't be bothered to participate, and management needs to reinforce the benefits of the end result of the process, whether that's getting people the resources they need, or more accurate job descriptions, or whatever the purpose is. Nobody likes justifying their existence, which is how this will look to them.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:14 AM on August 11

I'm assuming that these coworkers actually have to engage with you, you're just trying to make it easier. That whole bribing people to talk to you with donuts and lunch thing is probably a little bit amateurish; this is your job we're talking about.

For interviews, a good way of diffusing any hesitation is to email the person the list of questions you are going to cover first. They can even answer them preliminarily in email. This way they don't have to feel the least bit worried about the unknowns; few people actually know what the goals of your interview are, so if the questions are right there in front of them it takes a lot of the fear of the unknown out of it. They will also get an idea of how short the interview can potentially be. When you meet with them in person, you can elaborate on their answers and already have follow up questions in mind.

In the interview make sure to listen. Determine whether it is appropriate to appear to relate to them on a professional level; some people need to feel a respectful distance, others need to speak on a more peer to peer level.

The last question that I always ask is, regardless of the subject, "Is there anything I forgot to ask?". This serves a few purposes: It demonstrates your respect for their professional expertise with a tone of modesty, and it often also gets them to relate what is most relevant to them with a bit of always appreciated candor.

Good luck!
posted by dobie at 9:21 AM on August 11 [1 favorite]

No offense, but if your a business analyst, you don't really need the hand holding for all those people.

Be brutally honest with the people you work with. You are a representative of the business owners trying to put measurable value on areas prioritised within the short/long term strategic business plan. It's as simple of the that. Of course, being nice and sociable helps coaxing the information needed, but ultimately, you need to make sure those people understand where the requests for information are coming from. It's a much better stick and will ensure delivery whereas just being a great guy will most likely get you misinformation and half-truths mixed with slow delivery times.


I speak from the point of being a stakeholder and reviewing all those lovely documents you gather on our behalf in order to justify millions of expenditure. Remember it's your head held accountable when it's time to review all those business analyst justifications from six months ago when things aren't going right. It's not the idiot you believed after having a serious mono et mono over burgers at Chilis.
posted by Funmonkey1 at 9:25 AM on August 11 [1 favorite]

It also helps to play up the "I'm here to make your job better/easier" aspect of what you're doing.

I dunno. I've worked in enough offices to know that the general reaction to the new guy saying "I'm here to help you." tends to be "He's here to eliminate my job/make my job harder/demote me/etc." You are "The Bobs" from Office Space. You WILL be looked upon with suspicion. You have to establish some basic trust.

Perhaps...make sure you don't have an office totally cut-off from the rest of the staff. At least in the beginning. You need to be on the playground with the other kids. Then, once settled, pop your head over the cubicle wall and ask your neighbor "What's good around here for lunch?" You might actually get invited to go with a group. Build from there.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:39 AM on August 11

Skip the food, ask them. Antics and expense accounts are possibly why you are filling(?) a vacant position. Challenge your company to spend wisely. My department has done similar things and while it has taken the better part of a year, we are now the go-to-folks for a good chunk of analytics, inside and outside our division.

Dobie and Funmonkey1 said it best: you are a professional, this is your job. Preliminary questions, and some cordial handshaking are all the formalities you should need to perform to get any information out of coworkers. If your job involves the improvement of the performance of the company, part of their job is to provide you whatever information you need. Their failure to do so should tell you something regarding any analysis you pass forward.
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:42 AM on August 11

If you don't have the support of your management to get these people to actually turn up, you're in trouble already. If you do have the support, politely get the message out that turning up for the meeting is not optional.

Once they turn up, listen, listen and listen. As the old quote goes, a good conversationalist is really a good listener. If you have a thought, along the lines of "why didn't they do/try this", either keep it to yourself or phrase it as sensitively as you can because nobody wants to go to a meeting in which the newbie tells them how to do their job. You will probably be perceived as a threat, or a nuisance, especially if you're reporting into someone more senior to them.

Remember, everyone, everyone believes that they do their job well and could do their boss's job. Flatter, play a little on your ignorance, feign interest, probe gently. It's not often that people get the chance to really open up to someone about the nuts and bolts of how they spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
posted by MuffinMan at 9:57 AM on August 11

Don't waste their time. Be prepared and stay within the time you promised. These people may never see the benefits of your work, so the best you can do is not piss them off. The least you can do is be courteous because your reputation (good or bad) will precede you.
posted by Gor-ella at 9:59 AM on August 11

In my experience, the more they are workers instead of managers, the more they want donuts as a bribe. The thinking (as has been expressed to me) is, "I'm really busy, so make it worth my while with something to eat or some schwag."

Managers and directors, though, want direct, specific, planned conversations. They want the meeting to be useful and fruitful. They want to know beforehand what you'll discuss, they want to stay on-topic, and they want to know that they provided you with what you need to get your work done. The thinking (again, as has been expressed to me) is, "I'm really busy, so make it worth my while by making the most of the limited time we have."

Personally, I think that managers and directors (in part) have gotten to their positions by having that exact attitude. So of course, you'll find people at the worker level with the same attitude as the managers (because they are budding managers, I think).
posted by Houstonian at 3:33 PM on August 11

Pretty much just supporting what others have already said; however, what works for me:

Get management buy-in ahead of time; make yourself visible to the people you'll be interviewing (or whatever)

Think how your interviewees will be incentivized to deliver what you need; is it top-down management authority? is there some beneficial outcome at the end of the process, e.g. a simplified way of working or a new system? What is the consequence of them not supporting your endeavour?

Prepare your interviewees ahead of time; call them to set up the appointment, explaining why you need to see them, bearing in mind the incentivization; email them the details of the appointment, along with what you want to talk to them about, any preparation you need them to do, what topics you want to discuss, some initial questions to stimulate their thinking

Prepare your interviews ahead of time; produce a set of open questions, mind map templates, leave-behinds, etc. I love using mind maps because they can be populated with information during the course of the interview itself and can also be used as a visual aid to stimulate discussion

Do a rapid follow-up after the session; share your notes via email asking for a quick sense check before you invest a great deal of effort in converting your raw data into your analyses

In terms of document review, clearly you need to get a decent quality review but don't worry about 100% coverage from all participants.

Set clear quality review windows in which your participants must respond, prime them ahead of time that they need to block out some time, remind them of the required outcomes and timescales when you share the documentation, send a reminder in plenty of time towards the end of the window, and let them know that a lack of responses will be interpreted as assent/approval of the documents.

In my experience, keep it simple, straightforward and professional. Most people will respond to that approach.
posted by Lleyam at 6:30 AM on August 12 [1 favorite]

Lleyam has it right for your question. I especially applaud the following:

"Think how your interviewees will be incentivized to deliver what you need; is it top-down management authority? is there some beneficial outcome at the end of the process, e.g. a simplified way of working or a new system? What is the consequence of them not supporting your endeavour?"


The rest supports a viewpoint of professionalism, something sorely lacking in many places.
posted by Funmonkey1 at 3:00 AM on August 13

I would add that chasing the golden paper tiger of "cost savings" along with new systems and processes is fraught with difficulty. Heh.
posted by Funmonkey1 at 3:04 AM on August 13