A635.3.3.RB - 50 Reasons Not to Change/The Tribes We Lead
You don’t have to go far at Boeing
to hear the words, “We’ve always done it that way.” or “That’s how we’ve always
done it.” or something along those lines. It never fails to irritate me. My
response is usually this: “No. That’s not true. It hasn’t always been done this
way. If that were true, we’d still be making airplanes out of canvas and glue
and just talking about space travel.” To me, that is the biggest cop out of
them all. The idea that something can’t be changed because it’s “always” been
done or not done, or someone tried that back in 1985 and it was awful, all of
that – it’s garbage. Unless a process is absolutely perfect and doesn’t have
any negative aspects, no glitches, no “it works great when A, B, and C happen…”
1000% perfect, it can and probably should be changed. And even then, even at
1000% perfect – is that process going to be 1000% perfect a year from now? When
rates increase? Decrease? During a recession? During a winning Mariners season?
When a company decides that it has reached the pinnacle of profitability and
success, that they can rest and let the money roll in, they have absolutely
begun their downfall. There is always
going to be someone with bigger and better ideas who wants it more than you. In
business, where you stop growing, you usually stay there until you die. I also
believe that just because something has been tried before doesn’t mean it can’t
be tried again. Change applies to ideologies as well as methodologies. As Godin
said in the TED talk, [t]hat what we do for a living now…is find something
worth changing, and then assemble tribes that assemble tribes that spread the
idea and spread the idea…it becomes something far bigger than ourselves, it
becomes a movement. (Godin, 2009) Making excuses or coming up with reasons not
to change just puts up roadblocks.
There is another motto that is
thrown around Boeing and it is “Beat Airbus!” – now while I am really tired of
hearing that, it is moving us in a more innovative and competitive space. It’s
pushing us, willingly or unwillingly, to do better, faster, with less, in order
to produce an airplane so cool, so cost-effective, that our customers will be
tripping over themselves to place orders. (This is for all programs, not just
the 787.) After watching Seth Gordin’s TED talk about tribes, this made me
realize that by putting this idea out there, this, “Beat Airbus!” motto in our
faces and part of every staff meeting, they have inadvertently created this
tribe of Boeing employees who are again, willingly or unwillingly, marching to
the same beat. I think that every corporate giant has its day, and one day,
someone ‘bigger and badder’ will probably take over where Boeing once stood. This
is just the cycle of life. Airbus probably has the same or similar motto in its
factories and staff meetings: “Beat Boeing! Be the Best!” and they have also
created a tribe. Ultimately, the consumer will win this particular battle.
Boeing and Airbus are formidable opponents who have both been changing their
products and quality standards in an effort to be the one chosen by the
airlines. But my point is that creating these tribes, these groups of people
brought together by a commonality, helps move ideas forward.
These ideas are not overly complex.
“Beat Airbus!” “Beat Boeing!” “Go Team Go!” “Let’s Get Lunch!” The ideas that
start the change are usually not big complex ideas that have to have 37
diagrams and 14 Prezi presentations to explain them. This simplicity is part of
the success. A change happens because that change is understood. Thinking about
what words make an organizational change movement come to life – it’s the small
but powerful narrative. Transformation must be both personal to all participants and centrally directed in order to be coherent…everyone involved needs
to internalize the change. (Denning, 2011) The “everyone” here becomes your
tribe. Your tribe of unique individuals brought together by a central and
common idea.
Have I used excuses like the ones
in the 50 Reasons Not to Change graphic? Absolutely. I read recently in the
leadership blog, Leadership Freak – which I highly recommend, that excuses are
an attempt to lower expectations [and] excuse makers are explaining why you
should accept lackluster performance. (Rockwell, 2017) I had to think about
that for a while. Was I doing that? When I said things like, “But I’m new here
so I’m not sure.” Or “I’m not great at math so I could be wrong.” I was basically
telling the listener that because I’m new or not great at math that my response
or my work should be graded on a curve – don’t expect too much from me folks! I
have spent the last few months trying to teach myself not to do that. Not to
preface my work or my words with reason to value them less or to accept less
from me. On the flip side of that I was also thinking how some excuses can also
create tribes. Are the reasons we give ourselves for being part of a tribe also
the excuses we use to not conform? When is it noble - truly trying to make a change
and when is it just resistance to change – just being stubborn? Friendships,
social cliques, or informal teams may be threatened by change…the stronger the
group ties, the greater the resistance to change. (Brown, 2011)
One last insight I had while
watching this video was that yes, tribes are formed because of things are in
need of change. Sometimes though, tribes fight hard for what they believe in
and still lose. I wonder if that has to do with who the tribe is fighting for
and what they are fighting against. There was a group of women last year who
marched in cities all over the world for women’s rights, they went by the name
Nasty Women, and were a tribe who rallied against misogyny. With calls for
solidarity, they fought for LGBTQ rights, education, racial equality,
reproductive health care, and, yes, a woman in the White House. (Gray, 2016) Their
methods were criticized and heralded alike. The people who considered
themselves “Nasty Women” were responding to a statement made [d]uring the final
moments of the third and final presidential debate, Donald Trump interrupted
Clinton as she was answering a question about social security. “Such a nasty
woman,” he muttered into his microphone. (Gray, 2016) This sparked such outrage
because so many women could relate to being dismissed with comments like this.
I don’t want to get on my soapbox about this but these people absolutely formed
a tribe – even wore little pink “vagina” hats during their marches in solidarity.
But in the end, it didn’t really change anything. Clinton was not elected and
women are still fighting for respect and equality. I don’t know why the
election ended that way. The time was ripe for a real change. Maybe it was
mostly about the connection. Godin talked about pirates: [T]hey've got their
own flag. They've got the eye patches. You can tell when you're running into
someone in a tribe. And it turns out that it's tribes…that can change our
world, that can change politics, that can align large numbers of people. Not because you force them to do something
against their will, but because they wanted to connect. (Godin, 2009)
References:
Brown, D. R.(2011). An experiential approach to
organizational development (Eighth ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Denning, S.(2011).The leader’s guide to storytelling,
mastering the art and discipline of business narrative. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass
Godin, S. (2009). The tribes we lead. Ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead
Gray, E. (2016). How ‘Nasty Woman’ became a viral call for solidarity.
Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nasty-woman-became-a-call-of-solidarity-for-women-voters_us_5808f6a8e4b02444efa20c92
Rockwell, D.(2017).How to confront excuse makers.Leadership
Freak. https://leadershipfreak.blog/2017/04/11/how-to-confront-excuse-makers/
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