Comments

More funny spelling as another Brit joins our blog. You can read more about Helen Green here:
http://tompeterscompany.com/london/bios/#green

Posted by cathy mosca at January 29, 2007 12:02 PM

Having spent 5 years trying to change old habits in a company with a heritage stretching back over 100 years, I agree with you. I had almost convinced myself that my idea of the 'new world' was wrong.... until I changed jobs and started working for the industry leader (only 20 years old) and discovered everyone here think like us.

It was a bit like finding out the world was round - telling everyone and no one believed me - then I changed jobs and everyone is like well duh, the worlds round everyone knows that..

Sometimes its easier to start over than to change things which already exist.

Posted by Dave Hills at January 29, 2007 1:05 PM

Try coming into a company that survived a merger. Big Pharma company... merged with another Big Pharma 15 years ago! The people who were pre-merger still speak as though they work for separate companies, and of course it was so much better then. GET OVER IT, FOLKS!

Having also been part of an inspiring grass-roots culture change that didn't happen in our group, I can tell you that the new people will be right there with ya, but those old-timers (even 4-5 yrs) do not like change and will fight it every step of the way. Blatantly and subtly.

So it's not just Management, tho they suffer the same issues. But the regular worker bees are a problem, too. Very frustrating!

gayle

Posted by gayle at January 29, 2007 1:18 PM

1. Ahhh ... yes ... human behavior - super generous tip the front-liner valet - even though you laugh about them ALL the way to the bank

2. Simply be worth north of $3M or so and take a weekly massage to celebrate one's luck & wisdom - life can be SO simple at times

Posted by sean_luckiest at January 29, 2007 2:46 PM

The answer is NO!

On the broader issue - people cling to continuities (ie habitual behaviours) because they have worked, are working, or are expected to work for them. Sean_luckiest is a clear winner here - he is habitually consistent too. Sean seemingly understands that in the wonderful new world of work it is wildly exciting to be a winner. But it is dull, repetitive, and boring when you are merely serving the winners.

My answer is to concentrate on knowing yourself deeply truly madly and thus allowing yourself to be a minimalist. Minimalists are usually winners.

You can not change human behaviour but you can control your own.

Richard

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at January 29, 2007 3:36 PM

Who are you to say what leaders should "get" or not. What works for you may not work for other people, other teams, or other companies. I've been a successful business and organizational leader for about 30 years and I know only that it takes lots of hard work and fortitude. I don't need or want a lot of BS "advice" from authors, consultants, or commentors about the right way or wrong way to be a leader. Here's a factual news flash for all the self-proclaimed leadership experts herein--the command and control, strictly hierarchical leader is more rare than you may think. I have rarely encountered them and when I did they were around for a short time only because they don't really lead and either burn out or fade away. If you want to be valued in your company--try contributing rather than wasting company time whining about how your leaders don't "get it." As a leader, I value talent--nurture and encourage it--but talent has to be proven, not just proclaimed. Businesses exist to make a profit (gasp!), so if what you do builds the business, brings in customers, and increases profit--you will be valued and treated like gold. On the other hand, if your boss feels you need your hand held through every little task, there is probably a reason for it besides your boss's "command and control" personality. Check the mirror.

Posted by Mike at January 29, 2007 4:40 PM

Great rant!!!

I love to see passion and even anger...

not sure to whom it is directed... I looked in the mirror and I am saw the great, good, bad, and ugly that is truly deeply madly me... I can live with it all....

had the simple pleasure to write a book with a proven talent (jeff burns) about the 3 years we spent in the salt mines doing eTransformation at a major global company... one thing we agreed on and were totally clear about is that it does not matter a tinker's cuss if the CEO, Senior Management, or team leaders "get it"...

all that really matters is do you "get it"...

richard

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at January 29, 2007 5:56 PM

Any habit can be changed when the results we get improve dramatically. For example, we no longer crawl on arms and legs like we do when we were a baby. Walking is much more effective, yet we can always go back to crawling.

In business it's the same. The challenge to changing habit is finding what results the business is after (and it's rarely what people say it is).

The main questions to ask to uncover this information are:
"What's most important in your business?" and then,
"When you have , what do you get from having that?"

You may need several cycles of this questioning. Some of the answers I get still suprise me.

Posted by Michael Vanderdonk at January 29, 2007 8:08 PM

Yea old habits die hard.. for those who can offord to to do so and not for the ones who cant or who does not want to .. It is a question of perseverence and determination . and you have it in abundance . I have read manynof your books including the passion for excellence, thriving on chaos or the in search of excellence and your explanatory notes which appeared in the new york times in the mid 2003 s. Hats off to your drilling deep into the working of the companies and now men and women of substance for an understanding of the hman behaviour.. with best wishes iyers.

Posted by kvssiyer at January 30, 2007 12:15 AM

Habits are an important aspect of human behavior and they take many different forms. Some of them are maladaptive but they are all an adaptation. Mostly to context, filtered through many other aspects of human nature like the need for economy, the search for status, the need to belong, etc.
To change habits, a lot of pressure needs to be placed on context. Otherwise it becomes an act of will and a distraction.
Do most leaders get human behavior? Absolutely not, but neither does most anyone else. It is the face behind the face as Peter Gabriel once described it. You have to be quiet to see it. Then you can know it. Then you can act on it.

Posted by Greg at January 30, 2007 1:36 AM

Found this at one of the pages of the 8th habit book.

On habits, "I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly, correctly. I am easily managed - you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great people; and alas, of all failures as well. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a human being. You may run me for a profit or turn me for ruin - it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you."

Posted by VK Narayanan at January 30, 2007 5:09 AM

Well. Need to examine a few facts:

1. Habits are almost physiological. The mind works by developing patterns, which get more deeply imprinted with use (habit). So. Old habits die hard.

2. Some people need to be told which era they are in.

3. Nature cannot change, but habits may. The key is to accept the basic natural phenomena: everything is in constant flux.

I had a chance to walk into the offices of our country's government-owned TV. Most men (women are rare) there supported a 1970's hair-do, and I don't mean in a New Age way. I mean they never stepped away from their old tech, never-retiring pals, archives, bureaucratic policies that will change slower than a continental drift... and they physically, actually, stay in that age. Their language and dress is from the last century.

... I think the industrial age with its partner education have created mindsets that believe things are repetitive and the next day is like the previous. Assembly-line thinking.

We need to replace that with MODULAR thinking. It will take time; short for some, longer for others, and "never" for a few. But this change will eventually come.

** I also think that we should be gentle on ourselves in the process of change.

Posted by Ramla A. at January 30, 2007 6:38 AM

It is human behavior to take time to change. Corporate leaders or thought leaders would be on the wrong foot if they assume that either ideas or policies alone change people.

Helen, your example shows that the mind keeps remembering, and this cannot be faulted. To remember is a vital function of the mind; unless we master our minds completely, we cannot change the other day. There are some folks out there who manage to change themselves completely, but they are known with unpleasant titles. Turn-coat, hypocrite, unfaithful, shifty, restless... etc.

Even if every member of the society somehow masters the science of change, imagine how strange it would be to get to work everyday where every co-worker has changed their habits. At some level, we don't even expect bad behavior of others to change without notice.

There is something called PREPAREDNESS, known as a change management plan. The period of shift is a cost of change, and it cannot be eliminated. That's the beauty of being human.

Nature has instilled a process by which change starts from a center (one entity) and ripples outwards. Hence, not only the change agent gets time to change, but others get time to learn, adapt, and move on too.

There is neither anything wrong with changing, nor staying the same. Each situation has its own answer, and that's the secret of all change.

The middle path is the one which allows for change to seep through, take its time. I use the term "organic" to describe such things. Let the change be natural and take its own course. If the change is right, it will settle in. If it's what I call "idea from outer space", it will never settle in. Period.

I've worked at a place where they tried to make policies on how often could people meet up on an idea. The policy went something like: first screening, day 0. First meeting, day 7; second meeting, day 10. Finalize approval, day 21.

Imagine anyone's wonder that no one ever followed that policy!

Posted by Ramla A. at January 30, 2007 7:02 AM

Oops, my manners!

Welcome, Helen!

Posted by Ramla A. at January 30, 2007 7:04 AM

Hebits/behaviors/practices/rituals are all, and always, functions of individual and organizational/communal/societal perceptions (except that, in many cases, I don't see my perceptions as such, and I don't know that I don't see them as such; they are "reality", the "way things are", until we discover that they were really myths). If, in my "reality", the Earth IS flat, I am highly unlikely to sail too far from the shore, lest I fall off the edge (enter here your most recent example from work; "we do XX because YY" - YY is your "reality"). Moreover, I will so instruct my children, co-workers, colleagues, and acquaintances (OK, may be not all of them), thus reinforcing the myth.
Perception generates habits, and habits perpetuate perception.
The cycle is broken when a new perception is brought into existence. This happens by either design or default. The default method is best seen after emergencies/crises.
The design method is also a matter of habit: it is actually possible to create, SCHEDULE, practice, master the habit of exploring/challenging your individual/organizational assumptions/perceptions/world-views periodically. Check them against reality. The need and desire for new habits will rise naturally inside a new world-view, just as it is "natural" for old habits to survive in the old view.

Posted by Rony Szleifer at January 30, 2007 8:54 AM

Mike – I just love your rants – keep it up :-) We need as much constructive criticism as we do agreement. Like you I was also a leader for 25 years in operational management and having escaped that ‘old tree’ two years ago I now see the world from my own very different ‘new tree’

Helen’s excellent question is; Do the leaders in your organisation ‘get’ human behaviour?

The view from my ‘old tree’ the answer is ‘no’ in most cases. Most leaders in the NHS are worried sick. Firstly about whether their own contract will be renewed and secondly meeting silly targets from the government with no regard to reality. As regards ‘habits’ in my old tree – toward the end of my corporate career I suggested in a team meeting that everyone in our open plan office (25 people) should move around every six months to sit opposite someone they didn’t work with as part of a learning process but the only person who moved was me. The other 24 didn’t want to get out of their comfort zone (habit) and needless to say I was considered ‘very odd’ by many. Such is life and it illustrated to me quite a lot about habits and institutional/traditional thinking.

From my ‘new tree’ the world is a totally different place. To pick up Mike’s point I do actually look in the mirror every day and ask myself did I do enough. If I don’t work I don’t eat it’s as simple as that from this tree. I have no guarantee of work anymore. I don’t have a contract. I don’t get ‘annual leave.’ The easy option for me (Helen might say ‘habit’) would have been to stay in my nice cocooned comfort blanket in healthcare until I retire. But I made the choice to leave that tree and from my ‘new tree’ the world is an exciting place with no crap, I stand or fall by what I do. My performance is not judged on an assessment of some less experienced less qualified manager who does not ‘get’ it as Helen says. This ‘new tree’ world means changing old learned habits daily otherwise I die. Learning new habits is wonderful and has an almost ‘child like exploration’ feel about it.

I LOVED my ‘old tree’ for 35 years and I LOVE my new tree of 28 months – and like all young trees mine is still learning new ‘habits’

The English Oak is indeed a wonderful tree and very old, very big, very proud and majestic in many ways … New fledgling trees are growing and learning fast. Both are fascinating and both are necessary. Phew … enjoyed that ….nice to have some creative time ……Life is good.

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 30, 2007 9:01 AM

1. Totally agree with spin of Richard & Trevor pertaining to minimalism & simplistic career/lifestyles :>] ... & English oak lasts

2. Totally disagree with "new world of work" and "habit" concepts - reads like a consultant trying to drum up business to impose the "newest new on your oldest olde ways" - a bit trite :>[

3. One MUST manage one's own optimal career endeavor & be a FREE Agent & be financially independent ... so risk/reward metrics are always in one's favor ... program oneself for fabulous luck & wealth & health - like Rony's design concept

Posted by sean_program at January 30, 2007 9:32 AM buy canadian pfizer viagra

The problem seems to me that we keep talking about The New World of Work like this was the be all and end all. We ought to be thinking about The New World.

People's thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviour are largely shaped by the environment they are brought up in. When they enter the world of work they are young adults with all sorts of pre-conceived ideas about the way things should be done. These might be enlightened, old-fashioned, maverick, well-meaning, open-minded, daft or whatever but the point is they arrive with these pre-conceived ideas.

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Unless and until the ideas, the principles and the concepts we talk about as "The New World of Work" become the basis by which people live their everyday lives, it's always going to seem like a radical idea pursued by a minority.

Helen - try repeating the wastebin trick at home and see how the family copes with it. And next time you think about a something that would make a good resolution, don't save it up for January but do it straight away.

Posted by Mark JF at January 31, 2007 4:03 AM

Answer - mostly no. Management are largely selective in their understanding about what makes change successful. Too often the behaviour change part is left until after the change has happened, so the horse has already bolted.

Employees get p*&^ed off, and managers can't understand why it's so hard. There's a bit of "they must be like me" going on. Manager's think: "if it was me I'd just get on with it. So why can't they?"

Posted by Megan at February 7, 2007 5:32 PM