Beyond “You’re Doing It Wrong”
If you're any kind of Internet content consumer, you've encountered plenty of "lifehack" articles -- how to brew better coffee or avoid lines at the DMV or be more productive at work.
This genre used to drive me crazy, particularly when stories were introduced with clickbait headlines constructed around the premise of "you're doing it wrong."
Don’t lecture me, I would think. I’ve got my hands full already. I’m just trying to get by.
I still don't like the phrasing, but I started feeling a lot better about lifehacks when I reframed the impulse behind them from “you’re doing it wrong” to “let me help you do it better.”
Because "let me help you do it better" is literally what moves the world.
If you pay attention to business book bestseller lists or to what people are reading when you pass through First Class while boarding a plane, you’ll notice a lot of business leaders are in search of solutions or frameworks that make change easier.
In particular, Silicon Valley is expert at selling systems that promise sweat-free, plug-and-play improvement. Back when I worked in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software business, I called this the “magic box problem” Just buy this software, went the implicit promise, and beautiful efficiencies will be realized.
That may be true once the Robot Revolution arrives and we're all living off Universal Basic Incomes, Soylent and buttered coffee.
Until then -- and don't hold your breath -- real change requires motivating people to movement. Beautiful, maddening, stubborn, idiosyncratic people … who love to color outside the lines drawn by all those plug-and-play processes.
Throwing people into software platforms or goal-setting infrastructures and expecting them to adapt and achieve momentum on their own is a recipe for failure. But if you start with people and build infrastructure around them, there’s no change you can’t achieve.
I started CXN to help organizations get better at change by putting people back into the equation and Setting The Boat. In my experience as a rower and in life, setting the boat has very little to do with the quality of your boat, what oars you’re using or how your boat is rigged.
It has everything to do with getting everyone's head in the boat and focused on the stroke-by-stroke challenge of rowing together — matching slide speeds during the recovery, catching oar blades in the water at the same time, driving the blade through the water as one.
In my next post, I'll go a little deeper and look at The Three Risks posed by change programs that don’t take people into account. In the meantime, if you have thoughts or questions, feel free to Contact Us. If you’d like regular delivery of these blog posts and other content directly to your in-box, click here to get our Set The Boat newsletter delivered to your in-box.
