An open letter to my friends embarking on a Corporate Change Project:

If

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on !”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!


In her 1935 book, It Seems to Me, Heywood Broun writes, “Trees” … is one of the most annoying pieces of verse within my knowledge. The other one is Kipling’s “If”…. Certainly, as literature goes today, Kipling’s poem is pretentious beyond bounds. But as a pre-teen this poem portrayed my hero and my ideal. Steeped as I was in the language of the King James Bible, I saw no irony in my girlish desire to become “a Man”.

It has been almost a half century since I first memorized this poem. But, looking back over my work as an agent of change in corporate America, Kipling’s words seem more true than ever. Leading a change project requires all the qualities that Kipling expresses in this poem, qualities that Kipling that understood from his own life.

I am writing this article for two new friends. Ian and Ray have come to our city from the U.K. for a week to learn from us how to start their own CMM initiative. It has been great fun going over with them all that we have been doing, although they said my briefings have left them feeling as if they had been drinking from a fire hose.

But no matter how many project plans I provide or how many lecture notes I offer, my group can give them only a small part of what they will need. I’m writing this to talk about the softer stuff, about qualities they will find growing within themselves as they struggle with their project. The best part of being a change agent is the opportunity to become a more fully human person in the process.

Leading a corporate change project is a lot like leading a software development project, yet somehow it’s not like software development at all. Like many software developers, I am an introvert. You know what an extroverted programmer is, don’t you? He looks at your shoes when he’s talking.

Anyhow, leading corporate change involves programming for the human machine. Computers always do what we tell them, even when that’s not what we want them to do. Humans seldom do what we tell them, sometimes do what we want them to and usually do whatever they want to do. The trick in a corporate change project is to get the humans to want to do what you want them to do.

I’m writing this after a week that has been particularly difficult for me. My team has a new boss, again. My new boss has a new boss, again. His new boss has a new boss, again. At my company they reorganize every six months whether we need it or not.

Neither my boss, nor his boss, know what they are supposed to do. Neither I, nor my team, know what to expect. I suppose you could say there is a power vacuum surrounding my Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG).

People are acting weird. Everybody seems to be trying to impress somebody. Battles I thought had been fought and won are flaring up again. Team members who have worked in harmony for months are shouting at each other. We’ve found that one new recruit is selling ideas in public that the rest of us have never heard of, and certainly never sanctioned. She is hurt and angry with me for calling her on the carpet Thursday and with my colleague for calling her on the carpet Wednesday.

I was surprised by the vehemence with which I have responded to situations that seem to threaten the gains we have earned over the last year. Like a mother bear I have growled at those who even look crossways at my cubs.

As I tried to cut through the emotion of recent days to center myself and gain perspective, I found myself recalling several phrases from the poem, “If,” by Rudyard Kipling.

Kipling was born to British parents in Bombay, India, on December 30, 1865. At five, he was sent to a foster home in England where his was beaten and mistreated. At twelve, his parents moved him from that rigidly Calvinistic environment to a private school where the English schoolboy code of honor and duty affected him deeply, causing him to especially value loyalty to a group or a team.

I know of no trait more crucial to leading a successful change project in Corporate America in the twenty-first century, than loyalty. Change agents are a lonely breed. They are out in front of a new movement. Like Indian scouts in the old West, we cannot know what waits around the next bend. Unless we stick together, unless we are loyal to each other and loyal to our cause, we will be picked off by bandits, one by one, and our cause will fail.

Before writing ‘If”, Kipling experienced high honor and chilling tragedy. He won a Nobel prize and he lost both his children. He was showered with praise and denounced as racist. While certain of Kipling’s ideas, as in “The White Man’s Burden”, have long since been discredited, Kipling does have much to teach us about life in turmoil. He talks of being misunderstood and criticized, of winning and of losing. He talks of our relationships with the mighty and our duty to the common man. Kipling’s writing is preoccupied with physical and psychological strain, breakdown, and recovery.

Leading a change movement is physically and psychologically exhausting. Like swimming up stream, nothing seems easy. Murphy’s law is ever in force. If something can go wrong, it will. I find comfort in Kipling’s wisdom and his stoic view of adversity. Not every day is difficult. Not every week is frustrating. But the nature of the human psyche seems to change little from place to place or from century to century. Perhaps that shared common experience with the struggles of life is what is so appealing about many Dilbert cartoons.

Progress does not come without a struggle and it’s good to know that others have struggled before and that victory is possible but not inevitable This paper will explore what some of Kipling’s ideas mean to me and how I think they can serve Dilbert and my colleagues in business today.


Timing is everything

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Statistical tools espoused by the Six Sigma philosophy teach modern managers how to spot a trend from the data on a control chart. One data point out of range should not signal untoward management intervention. If managers jump on some random event and act precipitously without valid reason, they can cause more harm than good.

Measurement can help us spot natural variation in a process. Measurement can help us know when to act and when to wait. Acting without cause or chasing every blip on the radar will whip-saw staff and waste precious resources.

I’m not sure of the origin of the story of the “Boy who cried, ‘Wolf.” But you may recall this tale of a young boy who was sent to watch the sheep in the pasture. The boy found his task rather boring. So one day he ran into the village crying “Wolf, wolf.” Everyone in the village dropped what they were doing and ran out into the field. They searched the nearby woods and they counted the sheep. No lambs were missing and no wolf was found, but the entire affair was very exciting. The boy was congratulated for his vigilance and quick response.

A few weeks later, recalling what a great day he had when last calling “Wolf,” the boy repeated his ruse. Rushing into the village he again cried, “Wolf, wolf.” Again the men and boys of the village grabbed their weapons and rushed into the fields. Again they searched but found no wolf. Again they counted but found no sheep missing. This time the men talked afterwards asking each other if anyone had seen any signs of a wolf, any tracks or droppings. The boy was again praised for his vigilance, but some villagers began to be suspicious.

The third time the boy cried, “Wolf,” only a few men left their work to go into the fields. Finding no sign of a wolf, they scolded the boy and returned to the village.

Weeks past and summer changed to autumn. Then as the boy lay dreamily surveying his charges, a large gray wolf appeared and snatched a lamb. The boy scrambled to his feet and ran into the village crying , “Wolf, wolf.” But no one looked up from their daily tasks.

A modern adaptation of “If” reads, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, maybe you just don’t understand the situation.” In modern life our demons are not as easy to spot as a wolf, in or out of sheep’s clothing. Sometimes only through experience can we learn when to run if someone cries, “Wolf,” and when to wait.

As our population ages, one benefit to business is the wisdom that comes from the gray beards and silver locks who have seen shepherd boys come and go. They know how to spot a ruse and how to respond in a real emergency.

Old or young, the true corporate hero knows how to keep his head during an emergency. He or she will trust his instincts, but “count his change” and “cut the cards.” He or she will read reports and walk around; talk and observe.

Above all, in a change project, as a leader we must learn to “wait, and not be tired by waiting.”

Change takes time. People do not all embrace change at the same rate. Early adopters need to have time to demonstrate the value of the change to their more skeptical colleagues. Gradually the change will achieve critical mass and the late adopters will fall in line. Depending on the change, six to nine months or more will typically pass between the time the early adopters change their behavior and the time late adopters come on board. Some, of course, will never change. Regardless of your target, the wise leader will avoid protracted attempts to push ideas onto those who are not ready to accept them.

Above all, if management gets tired of waiting, any change initiative will become “The Flavor of the Month.”

Criticism is inevitable

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

Human beings resist change. Resistance will take many forms. When effecting behavior changes among a large group of people in the modern workplace, resistance will sometimes take the form of lies and even hatred. The leader of a change project will be criticized. Criticism is inevitable. At times the criticism will be sharp and at times quite well deserved. Other times criticism will result from misunderstandings or from having one’s best intentions twisted in ways you never thought possible.

No one I know is a saint; certainly not me. But even the saints made some serious blunders. No one I know who is serious about change can hope to escape with his reputation in tact.

Saint Paul was thrown in prison. Saint Joan was burned at the stake. History is filled with stories of vilified change agents. Sometimes they were vilified for their great ideas, sometimes for their gaffs. Some great men and women have made very bad mistakes, but saint or sinner, they are in the history books because they caused change to occur. They “made history.”

Consider recent Presidents of the United States. Saints they are not. Worthy of criticism? Absolutely. But whatever else we can say about them, they “made history.” And they advanced causes. They caused change to occur.

Think for a moment how Richard Nixon must have felt during his last days in office. Think about how Bill Clinton must have felt after Monica Lewinsky. Regardless of their feelings, they struggled to continue. Sometimes they lost the struggle. Richard Nixon abdicated his office. Bill Clinton was impeached and nearly removed from office. Yet both these men, like other less vilified American Presidents, effected changes of which they can be rightfully proud.

Few change agents do only good; even fewer do only evil. But in the days when they most suffer from criticism, the best “don’t deal in lies and don’t give way to hating.” Despite being surrounded by the trappings of high office, the best, “don’t look too good nor talk too wise.”

In other words, the best change agents do not become so full of themselves that they are only concerned about what other people will say. The best change agents realize that criticism is inevitable. The best change agents realize that they are not perfect. The best change agents keep their eye on the goal, swallow their pride, take their knocks, pick themselves up and go on with the job.

Plan, Do, Check, Act

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;

While change agents come in every shape and size. While they exist in every community and in every age, they all share one trait. Every change agent acts with an intent to change something. He or she acts for a reason. Change results from thoughtful action.

Several years ago a founder of the modern Quality movement set out the famous Shewhart cycle. “Plan, Do, Check, Act.” I like to paraphrase it as, “Think, Act, Observe, Act.” the emphasis is on Action.

We all know people who are dreamers; but you don’t find dreamers in the history books. We all know people who are smart, but never seem to accomplish anything of note. Kipling exalts the man of action, the one who is not so self absorbed as to be stymied by choices.

In a comic strip that ran on May 7, 2000 Jim Scanscarelli pictures a farmer walking to the field with his children. “Daddy! Do we have to work on the farm, today?” says one. “Shouldn’t we think it over first?” says another. Climbing on the tractor, Daddy replies, “You can’t plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”

Americans are known the world over as men of action. Progress comes from the action oriented. Sometimes we are impatient to act. We step out too quickly. We fire before we aim. Nevertheless, as change agents, we must act.

The Courage of Making a Choice

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

Once I asked a friend and very wise man what character trait he most associated with a change agent. He replied “Courage.” I was truly surprised and have often since wondered whether as a change agent, I really display courage when rushing into uncharted territory or whether I only act the fool. “For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. “.

Maria Savant was asked by a reader whether it took courage for her to predict that Y2K would be a non-event. She said it didn’t require courage because she was confident of her answer. Savant in her confidence perceived no risk, thus needed no courage. A fool may see no risk, thus need no courage. Kipling would have us see the risk in what we are about to do, then go ahead and do it anyhow.

All of us face times when we must decide whether to act or to stand aside. Depending on the situation, the courageous thing may be to act or to refrain from action, to speak or to remain silent. It may take courage to rush in or courage to stand your ground.

If we take the good and honest choice, and lose, it takes even more courage to try again and lose again and again and again. James Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, submitted his manuscript over a hundred times before he found a publisher.

Character is the sum of all our decisions to act or not act. Sometimes the courageous act is to get back on a horse after you have been thrown off. Sometimes only a fool would get back on that horse again. In the words of the nursery rhyme, “He who fights, then runs away, may live to fight another day.” Pick your battles. Reward does not always come in direct proportion to risk assumed. “Think, Act, Observe, Act”.

Picking battles becomes easier when you realize that you are not the lone Ranger and your cause is not the silver bullet that will triumph over all. Likewise, you are more likely to live to fight another day, if you don’t feel as if you must shoulder all the blame for any disaster.

Kipling would tell us to make the best choices we can make, do what we can, then be neither despondent nor elated at the results.

Persistence

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on !”;

Thomas Edison wrote, “Genius is 10% inspiration; 90% perspiration.”

“Working out” has always been a mystery to me. I’m a couch potato; I admit it. Once, in my twenties, I did climb a mountain, however. The mountain was not very tall, but we got up before dawn, hiked and climbed until well past dark that evening. I collapsed at the base of that mountain, after fourteen hours of exertion. I remember thinking to myself, “Well now I know just how much I can endure if I ever I have to again. And I vowed never to have to again.” My feet hurt, my sinews ached. But I kept walking because I knew no one else was going to carry me down that mountain. For a time it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. I dared not rest or I might never get up. Besides, my companions were well ahead of me and I was deathly afraid of being left behind alone and in the dark..

My guess is that most of us can work harder, walk farther and achieve more than we ever do. Our challenge today is less physical and more psychological than in ages past. When it comes to organizational change, the challenge is to just keep going through the rough spots, just keep walking. Walk toward quality delivery every day. Some of us may never face the opportunity to “risk it all on one turn of pitch and toss.” All of us face the opportunity to just keep walkin’, to just keep goin’ in the right direction.

Communication and Direction

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

This passage from Kipling reminds me of nothing so much as a wrist compass. When pursuing an objective in a change project, the goal is like the magnetic North Pole, a constant gentle pull in the right direction.

On most of our literature, our flyer, our CD, our PowerPoint presentations we display a small compass in the corner. It is rather like the logo for our effort. Seeing the logo reminds us to think about where we are going, because if we don’t know where we are going we just might end up there.

We are the leaders of our change. We know more about it than anyone else. We have thought more about it than anyone else. Just because someone else is smarter or more powerful than we are, that doesn’t mean they know more about how to effect change than we do.

Several years ago I participated in a research project that was aimed at changing the curriculum in the medical school. My boss, who was one of the most highly educated people I’ve ever known, was particularly frustrated with one of his employees. He said, “She keeps coming to me with these problems and asking the same question over and over. She seems to think that I really know the answer and I’m just not telling her.” He didn’t know the answer. That’s the most nerve racking part of a change project, especially for those of us with an engineering mentality. There is no one right answer. There is no way to calculate all the variables and arrive at the solution. There is no foolproof way to predict the weather. Neither crowds nor kings can make it rain.

Crowds and kings are generally a distraction from the real goals in life. If we set too much store by either of them, we can lose our way. Neither the man at the top nor the masses below can see the full picture. Each sees the world from a perspective the other cannot share. You will function best as a change agent if while talking with the CEO, you can stay grounded in the memory of what you thought and felt, before he learned your name.

As your leadership position grows and you have the opportunity to talk before dozens or speak to hundreds or thousands of followers, try not to pander to the crowd. Speak plainly, as if talking with your best friend. Communication is the heart of any change project. The message must be repeated again and again. Craft your message with different words, with different pictures, but always pointing in the same direction.

Friends and enemies will tell us what we want to hear and what we don’t want to hear. Listen, by all means, but if we set too much store by what others say, we may well lose our own perspective. Trust yourself.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

Time accounting is such a nuisance! I really hate to try to record what I did all day, especially on those days when it feels as if I haven’t accomplished anything at all. Thank God, I only have to worry about a day’s work and not every minute’s worth.

What was the name of that guy who wrote The One Minute Manager? My guess is he’s a very wealthy man today teaching us how to make every minute count.

I would also guess that more change projects have foundered on the shoals of wasted time than ever were defeated by enemies or laid waste by slander. How often do we have the right ideas, we espouse a great cause, but fail to deliver. How often do we fritter away the moment when we could have seized victory, but we were too busy polishing phrases in a procedure document.

Our bosses will forgive our lack of efficiency. They usually have the same problem. But the moment is unforgiving. When the time is gone, it can never be retrieved.

But if we stay the course, we avoid drowning in our own tears or tripping on our own pride, if we keep communicating, we keep leading, we keep making the courageous decisions, day after day after day after day, minute after minute, then we can succeed.

What did Kipling mean when he wrote “Yours is the world and everything that’s in it?” I think he meant that the world is yours to change. You can make a difference. You can leave your mark on your world. And when you do, “You’ll be a Man, my son.”

© J. James Jacobsen, 2000