Chapter Eleven. Keep It Going

You’re becoming a successful change agent. Many people are using the innovation, and even those who aren’t are talking about it. The patterns in this chapter—Involve Everyone(173) and Sustained Momentum(231)—remind you that it’s important to keep it going.

To continue your successful journey, you must share your good idea with as many members of your organization as possible. Use the pattern Involve Everyone(173) to bring in even those who might not have been a part of your original target population. Martin Luther King, Jr. observed that “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.” When everyone is involved it’s surprising how much commonality there is and how much everyone understands the problems outside their own domains. Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden commented, “It’s amazing what gets accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.” And, of course, when you have involvement, you also get buy-in. Increasing support from as many people as possible means spreading the responsibility and the ownership of the innovation.

The manager of the shipping department of one company realized the power of this pattern when he brought all of his hourly employees together. He described his performance goal and asked for any improvement ideas. The number of suggestions that were contributed overwhelmed him. Obviously, these were ideas the workers had thought of long before but had kept to themselves. Commenting on the meeting later, the manager said, “I’m sure those people went home that night and told their families that they had been asked their opinion for the first time.” You can get a lot of movement in the right direction and valuable suggestions for improving your business when you involve everyone.

In her book Soul in the Computer, Barbara Waugh suggests that you “Ask people everywhere what they see. In the aggregate, people have a better picture of the system than any expert inside or outside the organization can provide.” She learned this lesson in 1993, when Joel Birnbaum, senior vice president of research and development for Hewlett-Packard, inquired, “Why does no one out there consider HP Labs the best industrial research lab in the world?” Waugh was directed to hire a consultant to find the answer. She was unhappy with the answers from initial contacts with several firms and returned with the suggestion, “Why don’t we just ask HP employees?” They decided to add the following four questions to the annual employee survey.

• What would it take to become world’s best?
• Why aren’t we?
• Is what you are working on world class? If not, why not?
• What do you need to be your best?

Instead of declaring a vision, as many leaders do, this course of action invited the collaboration of every employee as an equal voice. The result was an organization-wide vision.

In the very beginning, when you took on the role of an Evangelist and contributed your free time to the change effort, you couldn’t really work to Involve Everyone. You were focused on your own team or on the small group of Innovators and Early Adopters who attended your Brown Bag seminars. It takes time and energy to reach out to those in the wider organization, and an interest on your part in the work of the entire company, not just your small part of it. Involve Everyone is an important pattern, but because of the effort required, we don’t mention it until the end game. It’s a pattern that ideally should be applied from the start, but as one observer noted, “It’s like packing the trunk of your car for a trip. You want to put everything in last so you can get to it easily!” So, in our setting, we feel that all our patterns are useful in the beginning, but we also realize that even the most enthusiastic Evangelist or Dedicated Champion has only 24 hours in each day.

Be Proactive!

The second, equally important pattern in this chapter advises that you’ll need to keep a Sustained Momentum(231). Our natural tendency is to stop and rest once things are underway, but we run the risk of losing everything if we don’t keep it going. In David Baum’s book on change, Lightning in a Bottle, he relays this appropriate comment from Glendon Johnson, former CEO of John Alden Insurance: “A cow never stays milked.” Even a small action just to show that the idea is still alive can make a tremendous difference. Henry Kissinger noted that “History knows no resting places and no plateaus.”

Even the billionaire founders of the Google search engine recognize this. While observing the company at work, a news crew wondered why the many employees were so busy even though Google had already reached the status of the world’s largest search engine. “What is there left to do?” they asked. One founder replied that any successful idea must continue to get attention or it will not survive.

Similarly, your idea faces competition from a never-ending stream of things that demand the attention of even your most solid supporters, so you must treat your change initiative as a living thing; it needs tending if it is to survive. Some days it just takes a little watering, other days, a major repotting is required, but if those around you see that the effort has gone to seed and is dying from lack of attention, they’ll start to lose interest. Momentum is hard to regain once you’ve lost it.

This key pattern is really a natural extension of your initial and continuing role of Evangelist. If you retain your enthusiasm, it will naturally spill over into your daily activities. Tell those around you about that intriguing article you read and offer to make copies for anyone who’s interested. Loan that new book you just finished. In other words, use the patterns Plant the Seeds(204) and External Validation(148). Continue holding Brown Bags(113) and keep the Study Groups(228) going strong. When you hear about a success story, encourage a Hometown Story(164) to spread the word. Stay in Touch(221) with all your key supporters. At one company where Linda worked, they called her the “patterns princess,” because she was always talking about patterns. She wasn’t heavy-handed, but her enthusiasm was contagious. Most of us like to be with people who are interesting and interested in what’s happening around them.

Mary Lynn knows the value of the two patterns introduced in this chapter.

I’ve been in academia for a long time, so I’ve seen many students attempt to finish a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation. It seems clear to me that there are two things that separate those who succeed from those who don’t. The first is to involve as many different types of people as possible. Don’t simply ask their advice now and then (although that is important too), but also keep them regularly informed of your progress. They will feel a part of the project and are likely to offer their assistance at unexpected times. Their reward is the realization that the final product would not have happened without them.

The second important factor is to keep a steady pace. You will eventually be successful at this large project if you do something every day, rather than work only when you feel inspired or find a large block of time. To keep the task alive in your mind, you have to keep it going. If you leave it alone too long, it loses meaning for you and becomes harder and harder to resurrect.

You have momentum going and a variety of people involved in it. The next chapter contains the collection of patterns we have documented for dealing with resistance. We saved these patterns for the last of these introductory chapters because we don’t want you to concentrate on them. Focus on making small changes where you can. We know you’ll meet resistance, but Fearless Change is the name of this book and also captures our attitude toward resistors. We recommend that you use criticism to your advantage.