02.17.04
 By
Paul Glen
Some of the most important lessons I've learned about transforming
organizations came from the struggle to shed an unpleasant habit.
During high school and most of college, I was a fingernail biter.
It's one of those nasty nervous habits that no one feels good about.
My jagged, raggedy, nibbled, nubbin nails were a constant source of
embarrassment.
Oh, I tried to quit many times. I tried going cold turkey. I tried
fining myself for every transgression. I tried putting foul substances
on my fingers. But every attempt ended with the same result: a return
to the habit and lower self-esteem from my failure of will. |
That
all ended when I decided to try a completely different approach. One
Sunday, I resolved that on Monday, I'd stop biting the pinky nail
on my right hand. It would continue to be open season on every other
finger. So on Sunday night, I filed the edge of that one nail smooth
and waited for morning.
For an entire week, I happily chewed on nine nails, and every time
I drew a finger toward my mouth, I looked at that one smooth nail.
It looked good, and I liked it. There were still plenty of other nails
to satisfy my habit. It wasn't too difficult to keep that one unbitten.
The following Monday, I added a second nail to the forbidden fingers.
On Sunday night, I filed the nail on my right ring finger smooth and
waited for morning. And for a week, I had eight fingers to fulfill
my cravings and two to display my achievement.
Then each week, I added another finger to the clean collection. By
the 10th week, I'd completely lost my desire to nosh on nails. And
now, decades later, I can happily report that neither the habit nor
the desire has returned.
So, what does this have to do with organizational change? What can
fingernails communicate about how to improve the performance of your
management teams and projects?
As we all know, changing the culture and behavior of technical groups
is very difficult. Most attempts to improve how groups function fail
miserably. The experience of the change is unpleasant, and the transformations
are usually temporary. New processes are ignored. Dysfunctional behaviors
return. Old habits die hard.
But I have found that a few principles drawn from my fingernail experience
can help improve the chances of success.
Don't try to fix everything at once. Just as with technical projects,
scope control is critical to success. Since efforts at organizational
change are painful and can distract attention from immediate deliverables,
most leaders want to initiate them as seldom as possible. So the natural
result is trying to change everything at once.
But just as small technical projects are more likely to succeed than
large ones, incremental organizational changes are much more likely
to stick than radical transformations.
With the fingernails, one of the keys to success was realizing that
I had 10 small problems, not one big one. My problem wasn't that I
bit my nails, but that I was gnawing on 10 distinct fingernails. Trying
to fix one at a time proved much easier than trying to fix all 10
at once.
Make progress constantly visible. During the 10 weeks during which
I was working on quitting, it turned out to be very helpful to see
the smooth- edged nails of progress. Even though I knew I was still
engaging in the bad behavior, every time I lifted my hand to chew
on a nail, I saw the physical embodiment of progress toward my goal.
That transformed every experience during the process from a failure
to a success. Rather than descending a spiral of failure, I felt I
was climbing the spiral of success.
So it is with organizational change. People have to see the signs
of their own reformation. As the process of change goes forward, we
need to be constantly aware of our successes and of the road left
to travel.
Be patient. Lasting and valuable transformations don't happen overnight.
Just like New Year's resolutions, sticking with the ongoing process
can be the hardest part.
So when you're ready to improve the effectiveness of your group, think
carefully about the features of your future group, look down at your
fingernails and plan how you're going to claw your way through the
process of change.
(This article originally appeared in Computerworld and IT World Canada.)
About the Author:
Paul Glen is the author of "Leading Geeks: How to Manage and Lead
People Who Deliver Technology" (Jossey Bass Pfeiffer, 2002) and Principal
of C2 Consulting. C2 Consulting helps clients build effective technology
organizations. Paul Glen regularly speaks for corporations and national
associations across North America. For more information go to http://www.c2-consulting.com.
He can be reached at info@c2-consulting.com.
Read this newsletter at: http://www.ctoupdate.com/2004/0217.html |
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I'm having a problem with WinXP Pro. I installed all the security updates from windowsupdate. microsoft.com and installed only the necessary programs but now I can't right click and view source on any web page in IE6. Also, when I click view, then source, it just clicks off and won't show the source. I tried removing and reinstalling IE with the same result. This is a fresh install. Can anyone suggest anything that might be causing the problems?
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