Excerpt from Sara Hey’s new book “The Dealership Equation: How People, Processes & Profits Can Make or Break Your Business” available for pre-order July 7th, 2023 to be released at the end of August 2023.
Chaos or Safety?
First, you have to understand where you lean during change.
Depending on your role in your dealership, you may have a range of reactions to this. Maybe you think “There is no way that I (yes, little old me) can create the real changes needed inside our dealership. I’m just a GM, Parts Support Specialist, or professional juggler.” Regardless of your role, you have the opportunity to create change. If you’ve been a part of an organization where one person ruined the culture for everyone, you know that regardless of the role you hold, one person can be the catalyst for change, either positively or negatively; it’s up to you what kind of change you want to create. Change is always happening; it’s never a stagnant thing; regardless of your role, you are changing the business you are in, so let’s make it a positive change.
“Sara, I want to see a change in my business, but no matter what I do, getting my people on board always feels like a struggle.” I was at a dealer meeting recently, and that is what an owner, who looked resigned to the fact that this is the way it was always going to be, came up to me and said. I get it, getting your people on board for change inside of your dealership can be tricky, especially when you don’t have any fight left. You know the moment you are at the end of your peak season, and you step back and think, “Man, I never want to experience that again.” As a result, you, as an owner, develop a 73-bullet-point plan for change. Yes, you did it! Maybe you put this plan into a beautiful spreadsheet, and now all you have to do is get your people on board. I mean, you’re the owner or the manager; it can’t be that hard, right?
Little did you know that asking your people to change would be met with the same enthusiasm as telling your kids that you weren’t going to celebrate Christmas this year? Which, for clarity’s sake, is none.
When people are in chaos, or constant change, with no end in sight, it can seem like you are dealing with almost an entirely different person. It’s like Jekyll and Hyde walked into your dealership (no, we aren’t going to apply this same thing to your spouse, seriously, it won’t go well.) People have different levels of chaos or change that they can handle before moving to almost a different personality (or simply a different part of their personality emerges). You know the customer who walks in every time, that is the life of the party until something happens that sets him over the edge, or he becomes uncomfortable, and it seems like Shrek took over his body and you start looking like him like he was green. Many times, it’s because the chaos in the situation was more than he could handle.
Where everyone leans in the chaos vs. safety continuum is different, meaning each person can handle a different level of chaos or change before they move from one side of the scale to the other. Some people can handle A LOT of chaos before they move to safety, while others only a little bit, and they would rather set up camp (which, for clarity’s sake, is something I know absolutely nothing about) on the safety side because the thought of chaos seems like too much. If we want to work with others effectively (and without losing our minds), we must have an idea of how much they (or we) can handle before they get to the “this feels entirely overwhelming” point.
In the midst of change, this is something that you have to understand about yourself and the people you are leading through change. Without this insight, you may be marching towards something new, but there is a good chance that no one will be following you. Then you’re not leading anyone; you are simply dragging them behind you.
I love to eat. Seriously, when I go to a new city, the first thing I do is start looking at restaurants. Let’s call it a passion project. If you need a restaurant recommendation, I’m your gal. During a riveting version of the game, “Would You Rather,” someone asked me, “Would you rather eat the same thing every single day of your life or never eat the same thing again?” I immediately said, “Never eat the same thing again” without much thought. But which would you choose? I think this question tells you a lot about yourself and where you stand on the scale of chaos vs. safety.
To be clear, there is no right or wrong in where you are naturally, but to have a sustainable business, your focus has to be the pursuit of stability at the base, and then we can add in either safety or chaos as our choice of growth. Still, we have to put the building blocks in place first.
Like we talked about earlier, in this midst of change, as Meghan Trainor says, “It’s all about that base.” While I’m confident she was talking about something else entirely, it seems to work here, nonetheless. The people around you are looking for a base of stability, and they want to know one thing and one thing only, how the change affects them. They want to know that you, whether you’re a manager or someone who works with them, will keep them safe. So where do you lean during change? Do you lean more toward chaos or more toward safety?
Let’s make this a little (we are talking minuscule) more scientific and take an objective look at whether you default to either chaos or safety during change. We are going to do this teenage girl magazine quiz style. Go ahead and write in this book (I won’t tell) and identify where you are on the chaos versus safety continuum.
Would you rather
- Never eat the same thing again
- Eat the same thing every day for the rest of your life
Would you rather
- Ride a rollercoaster
- Ride a carousel
Would you rather
- Do something different every day
- Do the same thing every day
Would you rather
- Have a heated debate
- Have a surface-level conversation
Would you rather
- Have a tight deadline
- Have no deadline
Would you rather
- Try something out of the box
- Stick to what’s tried and true
Now, look at your answers. If you chose mostly the first option that is the chaos side and if you chose mostly the second option that is the safety side. Do you lean more towards chaos or safety in the midst of change? Now, compare your answers with anyone else on your team going through this book.
As you look at your team’s responses, what most surprises you about who leans more towards chaos vs. who leans more towards safety?