My daughter Heidi recently returned from a much-anticipated backpacking trip. She and her friend had a great time—seeing some spectacular scenery in-and-around the Grand Canyon. For Heidi, it was the first time she had backpacked with this particular friend.
Just as it’s important to have a good ‘fit’ for employees within organizations—so it is with backpacking partners. Backpacking philosophies can be vastly different among aficionados. Some type ‘A’s obsess over meeting high-mileage targets while others like a more leisurely experience—stopping regularly to smell the roses or to take a dip in a pristine lake.
Philosophies also differ widely on food. Some prefer to make back country banquets (involving a great deal of time and energy to prepare, plus the ingredients weigh a lot) versus the minimalist (who prefers to keep meals simple and save themselves from hauling around an extra ten pounds.)
Heidi is a minimalist. She was originally introduced to that approach from me—and she came to believe in it through a variety of experiences in the back country. First night on her trip, Heidi was in charge of dinner. Her friend was aghast when Heidi pulled out the pouches of freeze dried food that—when rehydrated with boiling water —would soon be their dinner.
“I’ve never eaten that stuff before”, her friend scowled. “You know when out on the trail….” and she continued to go on at nauseam about the scrumptious three course meals she was accustomed to. Of course, by implication that meant Heidi’s approach was substandard—one that surely didn’t hold muster. Her friend suddenly seemed to have a serious case of buyer’s remorse in agreeing to come on the trip. She just wouldn’t let the food thing alone. Finally Heidi said, “Look…this is the way we do it in my family!”
A short time later dinner was ready. Heidi’s friend reluctantly tried it. A few minutes later she sheepishly blurted out how much she loved it—noting that her impressions about specialty freeze-dried backpacking food were just flat wrong. This experience, she concluded, would dramatically change her approach to backpacking. It would enable her to significantly lighten her pack (by off-loading heavy, bulky food items) and make meal preparation a snap. To her, this turned out to be a big deal!
Fortunately Heidi’s friend came to realize that the way she was accustomed to backpacking had room for improvement. She was thrilled with her new insight—although a little embarrassed she came to it so reluctantly.
Unfortunately, “this is the way we do it” is a well-worn catch-phrase in some organizations that can be an indicator of a bias for the status quo. For example, take the recent experience of a colleague friend of mine. He recently took an executive position with a well-known financial services firm. He’s smart as a whip and is a zealot when it comes to improving things. He’s very savvy—especially politically—to know when to back-off and when to ‘floor it’.
His on-boarding process revealed several opportunities for improvements. When he approached his senior officer about the improvements he envisioned he received a lukewarm response. He was told, “that’s the way we do it”. The message was code for “hey buddy, we ain’t changing—back off”. He did.
The firm never really realized any new perspectives from this executive because they weren’t open to it. It also appeared that the firm didn’t believe it had much need for improvement—‘their way’ was just fine, thank you. The firm never realized the equivalent ‘backpacking moment’ that my daughter’s friend had—realizing that her own misconceptions were holding her back from having a much better outcome. What improvement opportunities they missed, we’ll never know. It’s unfortunate.
My antenna goes up when I hear someone say, “this is the way we do it”. Often it’s their tactful way of putting you off. My experience tells me that the person making the statement is more likely than not to be resistant to changing ‘their way” of doing things. Of course, this is merely my own observation—not a researched-based conclusion.
The good news is that are exceptions. We’ll address those in my very next post.