I am
a huge fan of TED Talks. You can scroll through the history of my blogs and see
how many I have referenced in the past. I first discovered them a couple of
years ago on a show called “The TED Radio Hour” on NPR and found out that it
was in a Podcast as well so I subscribed and now I listen every week on my
commute (along with “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” and “Serial”, of course). After
a couple of months of listening, I started to actually visit the website and
now I watch about two hours-worth of talks every week. (By the way, I thought
at first that it was just a guy named Ted that set them up but it is actually
an acronym that stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design.) One thing
that is great about them is that they provide powerful content by streaming
relevant content into a compact time slot. I was talking to a producer earlier
this week who is developing a series on the history of the financial collapse
and rebuilding since the terrorist attacks of 2001 and he has realized that millennials
in particular love to consume data by having it broadcast to their screens in
15 minute chunks and that is exactly what TED does. I guess all of this is to
say that I am pleased to see a talk that I have not only seen but referenced in
the past presented as assigned material.
Part
of what we are discussing this week is overcoming resistance to change. We were
given a short presentation that outlined 50 common objections that many of us
may have heard before. The course is focused on Organizational Development (OD)
but many of the excuses apply to our personal lives. We throw up excuses such
as people not accepting the idea, cost, payout, tradition, etc. Some of these
may be valid reasons, particularly when dealing with the use of limited
resources. However, there is a common excuse that I have accepted in the past
that I may have to rethink. I’m sure that we have all heard this one before. “If
it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” (I always imagine my grandpa saying that wearing
his big cowboy hat and boots with a pipe hanging out of his mouth. He used to
tell us that all the time.) What we have learned so far about OD, though, is
that it is a continuous and intentional refining process (Brown, 2011). It
doesn’t matter if the system is working. There is always room for improvement.
Some may argue that there will come a point where you just can’t improve any
more. I used to feel that way. I was like, “If we have been refining and
streamlining these processes for years, shouldn’t they be done by now?” The answer
to that is that there is NEVER a point of perfection but let’s say that there
hypothetically was. Because the world is changing every day and our
organizations exist within a changed environment, the way that we interact with
that environment would also constantly be in motion so there is still room for
growth. Aren’t you glad that there are avant-garde pioneers out there? If not,
we would still be using radial engines on our aircraft and using 28.8 baud
modems. So I will no longer accept that excuse in my own life. If it isn’t
broke, that’s fine. How can we make it better?
The excuses
that most grate on my nerves are the defeatist excuses. Two words that I hate –
“I can’t”. When people see a challenge as being too great or think that their
idea is insignificant, they have given up before they even started. “Organization
members may have a psychological resistance to change because they want to
avoid uncertainty. Past ways of doing things are well known and predictable,
and unwillingness to give up familiar tasks or relationships may cause
resistance” (Brown, 2011, p. 152). When we move from the known to the unknown,
fear is a natural reaction but fear should never stop us from trying. I like to
use the example of David and Goliath. David didn’t say, “I’m too young. He’s a
giant. Nobody will pay attention to me if I win. I can’t.” Instead, he went to
the river bed and collected 5 stones then went and met Goliath on the battlefield
and the rest is history. David went on to become the king over Judah. Here’s
the thing, though. This story is so misunderstood. We often here this story
referenced in underdog situations. David wasn’t the underdog. Goliath was. David
was a shepherd and spent his days in the fields with little to nothing to do. He
was constantly toying with his sling. If they had cans back then, he would have
practiced lining them up and shooting them down all day. David was deadly
accurate with that thing. Also, he knew how to build the momentum with it. Slingers
were known to be able to accurately hit targets with lethal force from up to
200 yards away (Gladwell, 2013). David was approaching a lumbering giant that
was relying on brute strength but David had a projectile weapon. As they met on
the battlefield, David got that sling going with no doubt that he was about to
nail his target. The rock released and his squarely in the head. When this
happened, Goliath’s skull was fractured and his brain punctured. His death was
instantaneous. The reason for collecting the five stones from the riverbed wasn’t
because he had any doubt but those remaining stones were there to deter anybody
else from trying their luck against him. The bottom line – David knew his
strengths and faced that giant with confidence. There was no “I can’t” or “they
won’t respect me”. There was just “I will”.
Once
we accept change, that doesn’t mean that others are going to accept it with us
right away. How do we get others to accept that we are the victors and our
Goliaths are about to be taken down? Seth Godin (2009), an author, marketer,
and entrepreneur, explained this on the TED stage. By leveraging modern
communication technologies, we can all be instantly connected to whatever group
we want to find. He joked and pointed out that you can even be connected with
Ukranian folk dancers if you wanted to. The internet allows us to connect in
what he described as tribes that have a common unifying theme. To lead action,
we first have to tell our story then we can connect our tribe. After that, we
can lead a movement within our tribe which results in change. Do you remember
the ice bucket challenge back in 2014? That was started by a woman named Nancy
Frates (2014). Her son was a baseball player at Boston College and a former
professional player in Europe but was having some issues with his wrist. After
seeing the doctor, it was discovered that it wasn’t a broken bone causing him
issues but rather ALS. She took to the internet and discovered her own tribe!
She really didn’t do anything but spread an idea and called others to action.
Today, from her idea, the ALS Association has raised over $125 million! (I
encourage you to watch her story! You can find in below in my references.)
The
bottom line is that when we drop the excuses and accept change, we can’t do it
alone. We are only one small piece of a much larger whole. By connecting with
our tribes and calling them to action, though, we can start a movement! Just
imagine what we can accomplish in our organizations and even in the world!
Brown,
D. R. (2011). An Experimental Approach to Organizational Development (8th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Frates,
N. (2014, October). Meet the Mom Who
Started the Ice Bucket Challenge [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_frates_why_my_family_started_the_als_ice_bucket_challenge_the_rest_is_history
Gladwell,
D. (2013, September). The Unheard Story
of David and Goliath [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_the_unheard_story_of_david_and_goliath#t-507590
Godin,
S. (2009, February). The Tribes We Lead
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead#t-837746
No comments:
Post a Comment