Belief #3
When Change Starts
A major change happened in South Africa in 1994—the year of the first democratic elections, the year that brought Nelson Mandela’s party into power. When you hear people outside of South Africa talk about the changes there, they cite 1994 as the beginning of that change. Some people in the United States would say it started with sanctions levied in the 1980s. Change always seems to start when we become conscious of it.
But the current changes in South Africa can be traced back to the mid-1900s and earlier—to courageous actions by people in prisons; to committed actions by some business leaders who saw apartheid as an economic disaster; to debates, dialogues, and personal leadership by church leaders, young and old people of all races in and outside the country; to pressures to participate in a global economy. Some of the change actions seemed like failures at the time. But they were all part of a run-up to the massive change that burst forth into the mainstream in 1994.
FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES START LONG before we are aware that a new direction will actually become the mainstream. These changes often start as “failed” projects (Post-it Notes started as a glue that didn’t permanently stick), as actions by a minority (The makers of the first PC’s couldn’t sell them to Xerox). Or they start as shifts in normal patterns that we deny or don’t even notice (Think about how fast the INTERNET crept up on us!). A reliable client base starts to erode. Processes that worked in the past begin to falter. People start to resist or criticize a management style that was always accepted in the past.
Closer to home, think about your own health. Problems start long before you recognize them. Many health problems exist as genetic tendencies—there before you were born. They may start as habits that will lead to trouble. Or they may start as dissatisfactions with lifestyle or work that fester in your subconscious and ultimately cause disease. You may go on a special diet, and fail. You may try to stop smoking, and fail. Then, illness strikes and you are forced to pay attention. The illness may be the first time you are even aware there is a problem. But, clearly, the illness is just a noticeable signal in a string of events that started long before.
Now that change is accelerating, we don’t have the luxury of missing the subtle clues that change is happening or is needed. We don’t have the luxury of denying the need for change just because past efforts “failed” to move into the mainstream. This doesn’t mean that every change we hear about is worth supporting. But it does mean we need to be more aware and alert. Tomorrow’s big changes already exist as little sparks and failures around us today.
So challenge your beliefs that change starts when you decide to start it, or when you are forced into it. And challenge your conclusions that failed initiatives of the past are not worth pursuing today. Those initiatives (often called “fads,” “been there before’s”) may have been the first sprouts of a major new crop. They may have been trial balloons, unplanned alpha and beta tests, lucky mutations (mistakes), opportunities to practice and build new skills for the real race that lies ahead.
Start believing—knowing—that change starts subtly. Your task is to become more aware. Notice things earlier. Pay attention to shifts in the environment, changes in how things work, deviations from old patterns. When new programs and ways of doing things appear, think, “why is this coming up right now?” rather than “another flavor of the month.… I’ll wait and see if it is successful.”21
When you notice you are thinking, “We tried something like that before and it failed,” ask instead, “Why is this coming up again?” “What’s important about this that we need to do in order to develop and be successful in a changing environment?” “How is the situation different today from when we tried this before?” “Did we learn anything last time (when we ‘failed’) that can help us be successful now?”
The point is not whether something failed in the past. Failures are a necessary precursor to future success! The key consideration is: what needs to be done today and for the future? Broaden your awareness of change to include the subtle clues and early projects that created the path to today. If you believe that “important changes start subtly and with early failures,” your attitude, reactions, ideas, and 22 conversations about what’s happening around you will take a dramatically new form.
What are your “DO” Beliefs about When Change Starts? If you frequently do things like…
Decide when a change is introduced, “We did that in the past and it didn’t work.” (This may be true, but perhaps the timing wasn’t right and there wasn’t enough energy for breakthrough to success.)
Say about a change, “I (you) did it!… I (you) made this happen!” (This disregards all the past efforts and failures that probably led to the current success.)
Walk away from a goal or a vision because something you tried to do failed. (Maybe the future will show that what you tried to do earlier was the first trial balloon of something very important!)
Try to shift to the NEW way of thinking…
When things you or others try to do fail, reexamine if the purpose is worth pursuing and committing to. Then look for ways to keep the idea alive and to build on what you learned.
Listen for new ideas and minority points of view that may be signs of an emerging change. Appreciate that something new may be arising—even if you don’t agree with it. “Notice things” as they begin to happen.
When someone says, “We tried that before, it didn’t work,” ask yourself, “Is what we now plan the ‘right’ thing to do?” If you think it is, identify ways that the past “failure” actually helped pave the way for this new thing to be a success. (The past “failure” may have 23 developed useful skills, identified problems to solve, created awareness if not action, etc.)
Then you will be positioned for success in a changing world of work.
A company had tried to introduce a sophisticated computer system to link many of the business functions. But training was inadequate, the system itself had a lot of glitches, and the culture (which favored silos rather than cross-unit cooperation) killed it. It was an expensive mistake. Two years later, a new president introduced “another” integration package. Fortunately, the beliefs of many associates about failed projects had shifted.
In the past, they would have said: “This will never work here. We tried that and it was a miserable failure. I’ll wait and see with this one.” Now the conversation goes: “The timing wasn’t quite right for this back then. We now know what the lack of cross-unit cooperation is costing us—partly thanks to that failed experience (we’re more aware of these issues because we tried and failed!). It will be easier to implement the new system because we developed some skills then that we can use now—and we won’t have to start from scratch!”
In 1990, a member of a small network of professional colleagues tried to get the group to develop an on-line way of communicating using the Internet. The group looked into it and even tried some primitive programs. The project was cancelled—some members didn’t have computers, some were afraid that the on-line communication would replace face-to-face meetings. And the technology was not reliable. People talked about the project as a “failure.”
In 2000, this same group uses the Internet to keep the community together between meetings and to jointly plan meetings. It’s only now clear that the experience in the 90s made it easier to adopt and use the technology today. The group was an early adopter of world-wide-web applications. The group’s technology transformation actually started with that effort in the 90s, even though it didn’t succeed at the time.