Are Words a Predictor of Change Adoption?
see www.spamcast.net!
I have been listening to how people talk about change for a few months. Sort of an informal poll to see weather people’s language reflects their point of view toward change and how that point of view affects how they behave. The goal is to understand the gray areas where yes and no are not always what they seem to be. Overall my observations have led me to believe there are two camps (Phil Armour in a recent interview for SPaMCAST indicates that seeing things in two categories is a syndrome . . .). The first category are those that seem to be looking for a reason for change to work and the second are those that seem to be looking for a reason for change to fail. I have found very little middle ground. Interestingly when discussing change and process improvement, almost everyone starts by saying “yes” then adds a qualification. The qualification (when it exists) becomes the most important segment of the discussion. When I listened to the people that I ended up slotting into the second category I heard words like “yes, but . . .”, “Yes but let me play the devil’s advocate” or “We could do that but let’s be realistic”. These phrases masquerade as constructive but to a greater or lesser extent they are markers who someone that is searching for a reason the change will fail (or for a tool to help it fail). Many of the people that fall into the category that if asked would slot not themselves into that category. Most see themselves as being helpful by being “realistic”.
Why are these nuances important? I suggest that everyone in the process improvement community would all agree that change is important otherwise why be involved in process improvement? It sure isn’t because it is fun, glamorous or gets you a seat at the cool people’s lunch table. It is because we feel that it is important but we need to understand that each change is fragile and that fragility means all nuances are critically important. A colleague of mine, Steve Lett has said many times that implementing change is most effective when at least a portion of the community being impacted has an optimistic point of view towards the change and at least a portion of that portion (at least) are willing to actively look for a way to make the change to successful. When looking for people in the optimistic category I listen for phrases such as “yes and . . .” or “what can I do to help”. The primary characteristic that I am looking for are for phrases that are positive, do not include terms like “but” and when they include a qualification that they are action oriented. Optimists are a resource to mine for process change agents (and they are certainly more fun to be around).
