Tue, 01 Mar 2005

Be the Worst

"I have one kind of stock response that I use, which I feel is really good. And it's 'always be the worst guy in every band you're in.' If you're the best guy there, you need to be in a different band. And I think that works for almost everything that's out there as well.

(Via Chris Morris.)

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Crisis Acceleration

"...changes at this [the organizational] level do not come easily. It may take years, or perhaps even a crisis, to shake the foundation of the organization--it's value system." page 311

Agents of change are well aware of how difficult it can be to affect change in others. But they also know that the fastest route to significant change is a crisis. They have a challenging problem with a tricky solution.

The good news is, we have the solution. The bad news is that humans tend to dislike this solution (a crisis) even more than change itself. Even worse, no one wants to be the cause of a crisis, because those people tend to be targets of blame. But what if we could openly and responsibily accelerate an organization or a team into a crisis in order to bring about change and avoid a more dangerous crisis down the road?

The classic example of a crisis acceleration: Parents who cut off their drug-addicted child, leaving him to fend for himself. The parents would have already engaged the system around the child to help him have a controlled landing. They coordinate with the police, the school, therapists, friends, relatives, as much of their child's system as possible. What sort of parents would do this? Parents who are convinced that their child is going to end up dead in a gutter. They would rather have their child hit rock bottom on their terms.

Food for thought...

"It may look like a crisis, but it's only the end of an illusion." --The Secrets of Consulting

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