Engine For Change

Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was the woman gifted with prophecy, the ability to hear or see the future.  Apollo, denied her love, placed a curse upon her so no one would believe her predictions.  Her tragedy was her deep understanding and her powerlessness to make it known.

As you work at driving change, as you struggle toward Deming’s system of profound understanding, you may find yourself joining Cassandra in her curse.  The more you understand the immediate and future consequences of a change (or not making the change), the more it hurts to watch people bring about a failed future they could have avoided.

I think I heard Cassandra’s pain in Professor John Kotter’s voice when I heard him speak in March.  I can imagine the agony of traveling the world and finding many good organizations with great purpose squandering their noble mission on false urgency and failed, fake change.  The thought of the waste nearly makes me weep.

It seems the tragedy’s only antidote is the resolve to not give in to the powerlessness.  The curse must not win.

As you drive change you’ll see many people and many organizations crush themselves against rocks they could have avoided.  You’ll have tried to be their lighthouse, but they won’t see your light.

You must fight Cassandra’s curse.  You must do what you can, with what you have, where you are, even if that is sometimes not enough.

Today, I feel like Cassandra.  Tomorrow, I’ll feel better.

I’m going to keep driving change.  Will you?

In Trombone Player Wanted, Marcus Buckingham says that only 17% of people questioned in a Gallup poll said they play to their strengths most of the time at work.

I’m one of the people in that 17% so most days are pretty great for me, but today was an especially wonderfully awesome day.

I feel strong when I’m connecting a person with a strength with a group that can tap into that strength and make the person and the group their most successful. (In Gallup’s strengths language I’m a Maximizer.)

Today I participated in two opportunities fairs where more than 1,000 people got an opportunity to discover a way to play to their strengths more often at work.  It was fabulous!  And, I made a few smaller connections between individuals, connections that are going to produce amazing results; I’m sure of it.

I feel strong when I’m preparing training on a difficult topic for a skeptical audience and I get the training product to the polishing stage.  I’m training a skeptical group in the morning and I polished the training up nicely today. By the end of the tomorrow I’ll know if my product and the polish were successful.  For now I get to enjoy the feeling of playing to my strength most of the day.  In Seth Godin language, I feel strong when I get the product ready to ship.  Since the training is ready to ship, I couldn’t be happier.

Enough about my day.

When in your work week do you feel strong?

When in your work week are you playing to your strengths?

When you play to your strengths do you stop and celebrate the moment? If not, why not?

Playing to your strengths isn’t easy and not every day is a wonderfully awesome day, but on those wonderfully awesome days, stop to celebrate them.  If you don’t, who will?

Today I challenge you to find something in your day that you can claim as a win.

Did you arrive on time to the meeting you’re always late for? Win.

Did you smile at your co-worker that always has a frown on his face? Win.

Did you work up the courage to tell that annoying person in the office to turn down their fan/radio/humming computer speakers? Win.

What’s your win?

Find one.

Find one because looking for and claiming wins, even the small ones, is often enough fuel to restart your engines and get you back to driving change.

Win today.  Win and drive change.

Often change efforts stall during the summer months.  People go on vacation.  The daylight is longer and people’s attention for work seems shorter. Here are four rules to beat the summer lull:

Rule 1: Don’t fight it.  The lull happens.  It’s what you do with it that matters.  You could tidy up your project files so everyone is back on the same page when the energy level picks up again in late August or early September.  Or you could claim a win by giving everyone a break from the regular meeting.  Tell them to use the time to read something they find fascinating, and perhaps attach a few links to your favorite articles.

Rule 2: Don’t worry about it.  Like I said before, the lull happens.  It’s not your fault that your team has lost momentum.  The summer sun (especially in the Seattle area) is a distracting influence.  Let people focus on the light.  Keep your spirits up by laying the groundwork for what comes next, e.g., using the company picnic to build a relationship with a key person or find a quiet corner and study that book everyone’s been talking about.

Rule 3: Don’t talk down to who’s still with you.  When people show up for a meeting they hate hearing, “It’s too bad no one is here this week.”  They are there with you, so celebrate them.  What will you accomplish without all the clutter of the others around? Can you finally have a detailed conversation on that topic Suzie always wants to discuss but the team never seems to have time for?  Schedule one meeting to talk about Suzie’s topic.  Or, let Mike show his version of the presentation he saw at the last conference he attended.  Call it training and feel like you’ve accomplished two wins with one meeting.

Rule 4: Don’t squander it.  Whatever you do, do something.  You don’t to be standing in September looking back on the summer only to say, “Where did the time go?”   You’ve got a limited amount of time to drive your change, so use it.  Figure out what the best thing you can with the lull is, then do it. It’s your lull.  Make something wonderful out of it.

Do what you can with what you have where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Stop wishing for what you don’t have.

Stop waiting to be at some other place–or some other time.

Do something today.  Drive change!

I spent last week pondering the Cynefin Framework, Sunday discussing it and tonight watching videos about it.  Why should you care?  Because driving change is about seeing a problem or opportunity and proposing a solution or a direction toward a solution for that problem/opportunity.  The Cynefin Framework, as a sense-making model, provides you a way to test your perception of the problem/opportunity and solutions.

Your success driving change depends on how you see that problem and that solution relative to what the problem and solution really are.

The videos at the Cognitive Edge You Tube channel are excellent introductions to the framework.  Thank you to Dave Snowden for posting the videos.

Now I’m going to give you an assignment.  It’s up to you to choose to accept it or reject it.

Part 1: Watch the videos.

Part 2: Share your thoughts on how you think the framework applies to the change you’re driving.

Cynefin Framework (8:38): I especially like the point at 6:39 where the Simple/Chaotic boundary cliff is explained. In many organizations that cliff is closer and larger than the people think.

How to Organise and Child’s Party (2:59): Hilarious and true. I’ve used the amplify beneficial behaviors and dampen negative behaviors recommendations a lot while driving change.

Longitude (6:09): Important for all experts to watch, especially those pesky engineers who want everything to be solved with more analysis.

For more videos, including one about Apollo 13 and innovation, check out the Cognitive Edge You Tube channel then visit cognitive-edge.com.

The first duty of a wise advocate is to convince his opponents that he understands their arguments and sympathizes with their feelings.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Today I disregarded my opponents and spent the day with my allies. For 11 hours we discussed change management, Dave Snowden’s Cynefin Framework and my motivation perspective coordinate system. Plus, we told a lot of great stories about this time and that where we enjoyed ourselves, failed miserably, succeeded triumphantly and learned a lot about driving change in complex organizations.

We rattled off book after book that each of us had read and was encouraging the others to read.  I haven’t totaled up all the titles, but I think my reading list is now full for the next several months, if not several years.

Cherish your allies and study your opponents.  Both will make you a more wise advocate tomorrow than you are today; and everyone could use more wisdom these days.

Have a fabulous week driving change!

I’m always a bit spun up after I finished a challenging book and my latest read has left me more spun up than most.

I’ve just finished reading Ayn Rand’s 650+ page The Fountainhead.  I include how many pages the novel has only to shorten the time between when you consider reading the book and when you admit to yourself that you’ll never make the time to read the book.  You may choose to give up on the book, but don’t give up on Rand’s theme.  According to the Ayn Rand Institute, Rand offered her novel’s theme as  “individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in man’s soul.”

Before you give up on the theme, settle for watching the two-hour long, 1949 Hollywood version, staring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, and get the rough outline of the story.  And when I say rough, I mean rough.  More than 650 pages doesn’t make it into 2 hours without cutting to the bone.

Now I know you didn’t tune in to this blog for my book reviews and my movie criticism, so here’s where I tell you what’s in it for you:  Rand’s characters as a way to assess how you see yourself and how you are driving change.

Are you driving change because you think people will notice you, because you want to be liked and remembered? Would you sell your change for a promotion?  You’d be playing at being a Peter Keating, a copy-cat of the best order, wishing for approval more than purpose and fame more than his own soul.

Are you driving change because this is the work you know you were meant to do and you measure yourself by your own objective standard not the whim of other men?  Would you battle ridicule and abuse to drive your change?  You’d be playing at being a Howard Roark, comfortable with your values and your judgment, able to do your work on your terms and find happiness for yourself.

Years ago I didn’t know these characters, but I was playing at being a mix of them.  I was doing all that I could to drive change, not because I wanted people to like me, but because it was the work I felt was mine to do.  Why would I do any other work?  I can relate to Roark in that.

Yet, I remained tied in many, many ways to the recognition of my work by people who did not deserve that power over me.  I held back, doubting my judgment and questioning my values because I wanted approval first.

When I read Richard Feynman book, “What do you care what other people think?” I found a jolt to stop me from doubting myself so much.  Now Rand has finished me off and given me that last idea I needed to challenge myself to never doubt myself as the best judge of my happiness in  my work and my life.

Read or watch The Fountainhead.  I think you’ll be glad you did.  Of course, it’s entirely up to you.

Years ago I fled my cubicle.  The work that was in the cubicle was never enough for me.  I wanted to work on the things that were about the work before it got to me or about the work after it left, be that Theory of Constraints for work queuing or manuals for standardizing processes.  Apparently I was working upstream and downstream, and today Seth Godin has explained the benefits of that method in his aptly titled Upstream and Downstream post.

Most of the time, we think of our job as a set of tasks that take place in a —> [box] <—.

It turns out, though, that if we go upstream and alter the stuff that comes to us, it’s a lot easier to do great work. And if we go downstream and teach people how to work with what we created, the final product is better as well. Now, it’s more of a –> [   box   ] <–.

No one is coming along to bump out the walls of your cubicle and put the exciting work into the box that is your job.  If you’re waiting, stop!

Take control of you upstream. Ask for the assignments that you want that you know your boss has and may never give you, or pitch the task that you want to your boss and ask to lead it.

Take control of your downstream.  If you create paperwork that someone else has to use, some document that you pass along to anyone, make it your rule to call them at least once a month (or better yet visit in person if you can) and ask them how well your work is serving their needs.  Don’t give them an elaborate customer satisfaction form.  Start a relationship so whenever they do have a problem they call you right away and whenever you’ve done something truly great for them, maybe they’ll call you too.

Create a bigger [   box   ].  Why not try?

Are you only stopping by to see what I’m up to?

Do you think I write this blog so I can enjoy you watching me drive change?

I’m not writing this so you can watch me.

I’m writing this so you can be more of who you want to (maybe even need to) be.

In the last month, what have you done differently because of what you’ve read here?

Don’t do something because you think I want you to.  Do something because you want to, because it will make you happy, because it matters.

Drive the change you want or need.

I’d rather watch you.