The concept of a flat Earth dates back to the Bronze
Age. Early Greek philosophers including
Pythagoras and later Aristotle were able to empirically develop the concept of
a spherical Earth. Ptolemy, hundreds of
years later also used a spherical Earth model in the development of maps and
the constructs of latitude and longitude.
How was it that such a developed science could be so easily dismissed in
the dark ages? For hundreds of years,
the knowledge and understanding of a spherical earth was documented, yet for
over 500 years you were labeled a heretic for even suggesting it. The crews of Columbus’s initial New World
Journey were terrified of the evils of over-speculated sea monsters and the
inevitable fall off the edge of the world.
If you are encountering a culture shift in your workplace, then you have
nothing to worry about compared what good ole’ Chris endured.
Not only did Columbus need to get funding, he needed to
recruit a crew of men to man the ships necessary to sail to the New World. It is unfortunate the Leif Erickson wasn’t
one of his Facebook friends to give him any helpful advice. He petitioned the cruel and shrewd crown of
Spain, dealed himself the future Viceroy of the yet non-existent New World, and
convinced a rabble of uneducated sailors and ex-convicts to see his vision
through. As I have quoted a friend of
mine before, “All change comes through people.”
Well, if Columbus was a consultant for hire in culture change
situations, he probably wouldn’t feel too sorry for anyone contemplating the
enormous change necessary to keep business culture developing. I could imagine that in his classic Italian,
he would say “If you are looking for sympathy, try looking in the Dictionary
between Sh*t and Syphilis.” Or, maybe
not, maybe that is what I say in my endearing Tin Man way. Either way, none of our challenges even
compare to the daunting pursuit of alternate route to India.
In many business culture shifts, the wheel is truly being
reinvented. In fact, with every new
initiative, there can be gleaned artifacts from better times known from years
before. In the blogosphere hotspot of Maintenance and
Reliability (har har) you can find experts, self-proclaimed prophets, and even
the village idiot going on and on about the importance of good record keeping, planning,
mean-time-to-failure, and (yawn)
everything else under the sun as if it was just thunk up. Of course this pertains to any business
culture change, but since this is my dime, I bring up my own brand of Monkey
Business. Either way, different
organizations go through cycles of “improvement” where the problems at hand are
analyzed in order to develop systems of attack to correct them. When an organization is in crisis, or late on
the draw anticipating change, these new systems are overwhelming for many staffers,
even the principals and executives.
It is trite and boring to go into the discussion about why people are
afraid of change, most are, so let’s leave it at that. On the other hand, what isn’t so obvious is
why some are vehemently against the upcoming changes and are the biggest road
block in front of implementation. There
is a real fear that goes through people when presented with changes in the
workplace that will inevitably redefine their work-lives. To say that people fear change is not enough,
it goes so much deeper, in so many ways.
I just want to talk about the Flat Earth mentality that creeps into this
situation.
If you have employees that have been around for a while,
they have experienced many different phases of change in the workplace. Some bad, some good, but invariably part of
the new experience reminds them of at least part of these programs in the past. These programs either withered and blew away
or left some aspect of permanent change that remains. In some cases, the new program may be similar
to something very beneficial that was used before but foolishly dismissed
during a later arriving management change or change of ownership (both
figuratively and literally). I have
experienced co-workers that lament the unfortunate death of a program that they
felt was a personal loss. What is worse,
is that they don’t know how to reconstruct the concepts they miss, so they go
on and on about the good ole days. In
order to console their broken souls, they have convinced themselves that it is
impossible to work or rebuild these schemes and programs from the long cherished
past. Call it cognitive dissonance, call
it rationalization, but in all practicality, these people have convinced
themselves that the Earth is flat, and that is that. Even though they lived through the possibilities
and realities, they have somehow
convinced themselves that something cannot be done, even though it was a
proven fact just years before. Now bad
ideas are bad ideas, so if you are trying to roll-out something now that failed
miserably before, better think it through again to make sure you have accounted
for the previous failure.
If we go deeper into this, we can discover that the real
fear comes from a sense of disappointment that these people have with
themselves. They didn’t know how to
perpetuate the success of the past, so they have formulated a reality that it
is an impossible task. When they are
presented with a path to new glory, they fight the process tooth and nail. Why? Simple, they don’t want to admit that
they weren’t able to do it all this time.
They would like to believe it impossible so that they can relieve
themselves with the responsibility of performing best practices, and they
subsequently embrace mediocrity. When
the “new” culture changes are being rolled out, these flat-earthers are ashamed
of themselves deep down, and their insolence is a product of a deep seeded fear
that they failed all this time and that someone else has to do the job they
should have done.
Whew! That was a
mouthful wasn’t it. Now what do we do?
Give them absolution? Me thinks not; but
in a way, we need to help them absolve themselves for thinking this way so we
can better enable them to be a part of the culture of change. These employees may not be your ideal “agents
of change” but they are an integral part of the process. Since they remember a better time, they can
be a resource for the upcoming strategic movement only if we are able to draw
them out of their medieval funk. I don’t
have all of the answers for this situation, but then again, you hit this site
for free so you get what you pay for.
The typical ways of engaging people always include
identifying what is in it for them.
Everyone is different and their personality, skills, and experience will
reveal what morsel can be used to lure them back on the ball field. Let them vent, gripe, and tell you how it can’t
be done. Then look them in the eye and
tell them that you believe it possible and need their help to make it
happen. Maybe you can blame someone or
something else for the impetus of atrophy that killed things years before, and
take the weight off of the shoulders of the one sitting before you. Perhaps you can assign them a leadership role
in the process that appeals to their specialty or niche. Maybe all you can do in the end is bid them
farewell in their dark ages while you move forward into the renaissance. Not
everyone can make the change, and those we hold onto with well-wishes of
turning their attitudes around usually end up slowing us down and draining our
energy. Everyone makes their own choices
in this life, and some choose to wallow in sorrow instead of getting in the
game. If they tell you that you have
been “drinking the Kool-Aid”, you need to tell them how good it tastes, and how
much it will help them. If your planned
change is thought through then it isn’t poison, don’t let them convince you
otherwise.
Hundreds of years ago, we didn’t have the widespread
literacy and access to media we have today, it doesn’t mean that we can be condemned
back into a dark age where facts are made back into mysteries that will need to
be someday proved again. Smart people,
without the use of smart phones and the internet were able to establish a sound
understanding of our Earth, only for it to be shattered by ignorance. This is no different from the poor directions
that companies have been led by foolish leaders and greed. Smart people are born every day, and will be
ready and willing to bring a spherical outlook to our dark ages. Don’t let your fear of being lazy,
incompetent, or unskilled scare you away from getting on the fast horse. Making the change for the good is the only
way to win.
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