Engine For Change

Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things. It is the continuous revolution of the marketplace. It is the understanding that allows us to recognize shortcomings and seek solutions.” – Ronald Reagan

Do you ever feel like you don’t have the right to question?

Are you waiting for someone to give you permission to change the established way of doing things?

Though there are times when others, a good boss or a great community leader, may offer you the freedom to question and to change, know that your freedom was never really theirs to offer.

All these days you’ve been carrying around your freedom inside you and were either unaware of it or too afraid to use it.

You can question.

You can change things.

But, unless you are in power, you can’t question or change by force, by ridicule or by contempt.  You can’t drive people to change.  Even if you are in power and could, why would you?

Instead:

Choose to question in a way that leads people forward with you, e.g.,

“What would our work look like if we stopped doing process X?”

instead of

“Process X is stupid, so why didn’t you stop us from doing it years ago?”

Choose to change with others in mind, e.g.,

“I’m going to start all of my meetings on time from now on.  Is there anything we can do together to clear the way for you to be present when we start”

instead of

“I know you have to walk from across the campus to get to this meeting, but I have to start on time.  I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

Use your right to question.

Change the established way.

Leverage your freedom.

If you don’t, no one else will.

Are all active sentences commands, e.g., “Go pick up your room,” or “Mechanics shall dispose of their batteries in the blue containers”?

No.

Are most (if not all) of the active sentences you hear at work commands?

Probably.

After my post on Tuesday, Write for Action, Mike P wrote:

I’ve been thinking about this and need some help. I see the benefit of the active sentence. You’re being transparent and providing clarity.

At the same time, active sentences can be prescriptive and sound a lot like driving people to change. “You go do this.”

I feel like driving change means that you let people know where we need to be and why. How they actually do it is not really my concern. In which case, your language would almost always be passive… “that tree over there will provide us shelter from the rain.” Rather than… “go get under that tree over there.”

Mike assumed that an encouragement toward active sentences implied an encouragement toward directive orders toward others.  Though I had meant no such implication, it isn’t hard to trace how Mike could jump to that conclusion because too often at work (I hypothesize) the only active sentences we hear are orders.

Meanwhile, in my ever-so-tilted version of reality, colored by my time driving change, I was picturing active sentences that announced what I had done or intended to do, not what I expected of others.

Here’s the type of active sentence driven conversation I was imagining:

Me: “I am going to hide under that tree for shelter from the wind.”

Other person: “Oh.”

Me: “Would you like to join me?  Do you need me to carry anything for you so it will be easier for you to join me under the tree?  Or, do you think there is a better place to shelter ourselves from the storm?”

Then the other person would answer the questions obviously directed at them to make decisions for themselves relative to the options I’d offered them or the ones that they had offered.  Action would happen quickly.

Compare that to a typical work conversation filled with passive voices. That same conversation would probably sound like:

Me: “We need shelter from the wind.”

Other person: “Oh.”

Me: “We should decide to go toward that tree.”

And then we’d just stand there, me getting more angry that the other person wasn’t moving toward the tree like I wanted us to.

And then there is the third active sentence, all orders conversation that Mike P went to in his comment.

Me: “Go stand under that tree.”

Other person: “Oh.”

Me: “Why aren’t you moving? Are you stupid? Do you need to be briefed or retrained?”

And then we are both angry and nothing happens.

Thanks Mike for showing me the gap in my thinking.  I hope I delivered the help you asked for.  You’ve helped me on this one.  I won’t miss that gap again.  Now, let’s choose action.  Let’s drive change.

A quick tip to improve any implementation: Write active sentences.

What’s an active sentence?

A sentence where the subject performs the action of a verb.

Examples:

• The dog ate the biscuits.
• The mechanic threw away the batteries in the blue recycling bin.
• You will sign your name at the bottom of the page.

An active sentence is the opposite of a passive sentence.

What’s a passive sentence?

A sentence where the action is performed on the subject.

Examples:

• The biscuits were eaten.
• The batteries will be thrown away in the blue recycling bin.
• A signature will be placed at the bottom of the page.

A passive sentence leaves you wondering who did the action.

• Who ate the biscuits?
• Who should throw away the batteries?
• Who must place their signature at the bottom of the page?

Passive sentences stop action because the person reading your passive sentence is allowed to assume that you aren’t suggesting that they take the action; you are merely telling them the action was taken.

Your reader could rightly assume that you are going to eat the biscuits, throw away the batteries and sign at the bottom of the page. So, the reader can go on to doing what they want to do, instead of what you’d like or expect them to do.

If people aren’t taking the actions you expect, check for passive sentences and make them active.

The people still might not do the action, but at least they’ll know they were expected to act.

Write for action and you just might get it.

This week’s quote isn’t a quote; it’s a conversation.

Person 1: I’m excited to work with your group.

Person 2: How exactly did you get here to work with us?

Person 1: I asked if I could.

Person 2: You asked?  I’ve never thought to ask.

Imagine what opportunities are out there that you’re missing only because you haven’t thought to ask.

Have you ever heard of the word “voluntold”?  It’s a combination of volunteer and told.  It typically means your boss ordered you to serve on a committee that you never would have chosen to serve with if you were given the choice.  Unwords.com lists the definition as:

1. (v.) When one has been volunteered for something by another person. Often against their wishes or desires.

Sadly, too many committees are developed from the masses of “voluntold” members.  It’s not surprising that these committees of conscripts rarely achieve an ounce of the impact a team of true volunteers accomplishes.

The other day I began to wonder, “Is it possible to take a committee of ‘voluntold’ members and turn them into a team of committed volunteers?”

Could you take a bunch of individuals waiting for the meeting time to run out  and transform them into a team willing to share tasking and push forward toward a common goal?

What if you pushed them to admit their past decision and choose their future ones.  What if you asked:

• Did you come here today because you wanted to or because your boss told you?  Are you a volunteer or were you “voluntold”?
• If you came because your boss told you, are you curious about the opportunity you have as a member of this team?
• If you came because your boss told you, but you aren’t curious about the opportunity, are you willing to go back to your boss and encourage him or her to assign someone else to the team?
• Do you think this team can accomplish a great deal if you can each commit to this opportunity?
• Are you willing to act on that commitment and take an action away from today’s meeting?

I believe it is possible to gather commitment from the “voluntold” and it can be as simple as asking them a few questions about why they are here, whether or not they want to stay and what they will do to show their commitment.

Try it and see how you do.  I’ll love to hear if your experiment was successful.  We may be on to something here.

This quote must be posted and it must not wait.

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

You need top level leadership to support the change you are driving, but do you need them to attend all your meetings?

Too frequently teams bog down because they can’t tell the difference between leadership support and leadership attendance.  When attendance fades (as it always seems to do with top level leaders), teams immediately assume the absence means the leaders don’t support the project any more.

Before you and your team jump to that conclusion, let’s put the leaders’ absences in perspective:

1.  Do they attend your meetings to work with your team or only out of habit?  You can tell by whether or not they pay attention to the conversation, actively participate and get excited as you claim progress and wins.  Someone only attending out of habit is frequently distracted from the conversation, messaging on their Blackberry and only engaging in the conversation when their name is mentioned.

2.  Do they return your calls, e-mails, visits?  Sometimes a leader’s meeting schedule changes and they can’t make your meeting, but that doesn’t mean they don’t support your project.  If you call or e-mail or visit the leader and they turn you away, you’re probably right that you’ve lost their support for your project.  But, if you call or e-mail or visit and the leader engages with you and offers you support, then you shouldn’t fear their absence.

3.  Do they remove obstacles when asked?  Too often teams rely on leaders to approve of every little action in their change plan.  Instead, why not charge forward with your change during the leaders’ absences, calling on them only when you need an obstacle removed.  If they respond to your request, continue on with driving your change.  If they ignore you and your obstacle, or worse listen then dismiss you, then you know you’ve got to work on building back the relationship of support or finding another leader to move your obstacles.

Don’t fear the absence of a leader. It just might be that they trust you enough to continue on without them.

Take that as a compliment and keep driving change.

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Typically someone uses a quote like this to encourage you to raise your actions to the level of your rhetoric.  I’m not going to offer you another tired version of that message.

Instead, I say you embrace the truth that your actions speak louder than your words.

Craft your week around opportunities to have people–the people you most want to influence–see you behave in the ways that matter.

Run a meeting better than everyone else, exactly how you wish they would run their meetings.

Send a thoughtful e-mail congratulating someone on a win, no matter how small of an accomplishment it may seem.

Take the time, regularly, to smile at the strangers you meet on the sidewalk, in the hallway, even in the passing cars.

Act loudly!

Most of the time when we talk about driving change we’re focused on:

the goal,

the wins along the way,

and the pace of our progress.

Don’t forget to watch for the fabulous friendships you can form along the way.

I’ve started a list of things change implementers (that’s you) can learn from the hit TV show, The Biggest Loser.

• Seek out volunteers.
• Ask for permission to push these volunteers to their limits.
• Live the lifestyle you recommend.
• Allow people to quit.
• Praise liberally.
• Keep the goal in sight.
• Measure your progress often and publicly.
• Add some competition where you can.

Seek out volunteers. As far as I know the producers of the show aren’t tracking every contestant down and demanding that they participate in the show.  Instead, in most cases, the producers are seeking volunteers who want to make a substantial change in their lives, but for a list of reasons have been unsuccessful without concentrated help.

Ask for permission to push these volunteers to their limits. Jillian and Bob don’t let the contestants settle for incremental change.  They set a high, but achievable, bar for each contestants performance and constantly challenge them to overcome it.  Imagine what you could do in an implementation if you got that type of permission!

Live the lifestyle you recommend. This is their version of the old saying, “walking the talk.”  Jillian and Bob work out and eat right, the same habits they are encouraging the contestants to take on.  If Jillian and Bob were out of shape and overweight, it’s likely the contestants would give up sooner, if they even tried in the first place.  So, sharpen your skills at acting the behaviors you want before you go implementing those behaviors onto or even with others.

Allow people to quit. There are some that leave The Biggest Loser of their own free will.  They’ve been given the huge opportunity to have guaranteed time to work on something they’ve said will change their lives and yet some still walk away.  So too in your implementations, you must let people exercise their will to walk away.  Let them prove you wrong and win their own way. That’s okay too.  Let them fail on their own and come back to your implementation when they see fit.  Keep your attention on those who’ve stayed with you.  They are the ones that matter most.

Praise liberally. Don’t withhold hard-won praise, even when the accomplishment seems small to you.  Jillian might not think twice about doing 100 sit-ups, but for a contestant who hasn’t done 5 sit-ups in their whole life, she knows to offer true praise early and often.

Keep the goal in sight. Regularly the contestants are reminded why they are on the show and why that matters to them.  They never get far from their goal as they go through their daily routines.  Those of us who’ve tried to implement a new project, but only on the bi-weeks, know that you can’t intermittently notice the goal.  Focus on that goal all the time and you’ll keep moving toward it.

Measure your progress often and publicly. On The Biggest Loser they have frequent, public weigh-ins, where they report the governing metric, a contestants weight loss since the last weigh in.  Notice the measure isn’t their weight, but instead is their rate of progress toward their goal weight.  Weight lost is a measure of motion.  And, they report this governing metric publicly.  There’s no meeting with Jillian for a private weigh-in to avoid embarrassments when you’ve had a bad week.  There’s no complaints, “Well, the scale hasn’t been calibrated in the past three seconds so you can’t trust that number. Next slide.” Sigh!   Create measures of your progress toward your goal and then publicly display that measure as often and as publicly as you can.  Accountability loves the light!

Add some competition where you can. Some people can get excited about competing against themselves, but those people seem rare.  Most of us want to compare ourselves to others.  One team wants to beat the next, whether they are on The Biggest Loser or in your organization.  Come up with clever ways to pit your implementation group against another.  If you’re trying to gain organization-wide compliance, try offering a prize to the group within the organization that gets the highest compliance rate during a three-month audit.

Your thoughts: Can you think of other lessons from The Biggest Loser that apply to implementing change?