BELTED UP AND STUCK

Is there a human being alive who is capable of getting to an airplane who doesn't know how to buckle his seatbelt? Given that we have 100% seatbelt understanding among the flying population, why do flight attendants repeat the instructions literally millions of times a year? Because they’re programmed to do so – no other reason! Their record is stuck in a groove (if you can remember records rather than CD’s).

Like so many policies, beliefs and procedures in our organisations and lives, this is a ritual that's stuck. To get unstuck, organisations (and people) need two things:

a) a vacuum and,

b) a willingness to ignore dissent

Change is made by people who care, who have some sort of authority and are willing to take responsibility. Often, though, finding all three is tough, particularly when faced with the immovable object of the stuck organisation.

One approach to becoming unstuck is the clean sheet of paper. Dictating your speech well before time means it’s going to change, that your ‘menu’ will be redone, that the needs are going to start from zero.

Now, instead of needing a unanimous vote to change something, merely demand that you need a passionate voice to add something.

For years, the Yahoo home page was stuck, with literally hundreds of links on it. No one could take a link off the page, because unanimous consent was impossible. Once Google decided to start with a completely blank page, a different approach was possible.

Move yourself across the street to a new location, completely rewrite your personal handbook, throw out the standard script - by creating a vacuum, you give yourself permission to invent.

Until next time (outside the groove),

Peripatetic Scribe