From Passive Acceptance to Proactive Action

Forty years ago I founded the Eureka! Ranch with a focus on inventing BIG IDEAS for new products or services. This remains a foundation of our work.

However today leaders are also asking us to help them double their level of employee engagement in PROACTIVE Problem Solving of broken or flawed work systems.  

Work systems matter because as the famous statistician Dr. W. Edwards Deming taught, “94% of problems are due to the system, 6% are caused by the workers.”  

Shifting from passive acceptance to proactive action requires a mindset shift from tolerating inefficiencies to intentionally identifying and correcting them. The mantra for this movement is “STOP STUPID. START SMART.”. It’s about refusing to accept “just the way it is” and taking smart, structured action to fix underlying issues with the work systems.

In working with leadership on changing the mindset of managers and team members I’ve learned three things.

1. Change by adults only happens when they are ready to change.   As artist Andy Warhol said “When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can’t make them change  if they don’t want to, just like when they do want to, you can’t stop them.” I’ve found that it’s best to start a change movement by asking for volunteers who for what ever reason have had enough with the “stupid stuff” that they have to deal with day after day.   As that group sees success in vaporizing “the stupid” others become interested. 
2. Courage to take action is best built through a series of small wins.   That’s why we start by challenging them to take proactive action on problems they face that are within their sphere of influence.  We also encourage them to start small – get wins to build their confidence and capability to fix broken work systems. 
3. Leadership’s personal engagement with System Thinking makes a difference.  When key members of the leadership of an organization are seen taking classes in PROACTIVE Problem Solving the employees take the new mindset more seriously.  Even more importantly, when leaders are applying what they learned about how to proactively fix broken systems there is even greater buy in by the organization.   Just today I spoke with a manager at a company that said to me “I was skeptical about system thinking – but when I saw the company President using the teaching to solve a problem we face in a meeting – I decided it’s time for me to learn this stuff too.”  Note – managers and team members will succeed without leadership engagement.  It will just take longer for the culture to change. 

Cheers

Doug Hall 

Founder – Eureka! Ranch
Co-Founder – Dexter Bourbon Company from the Brain Brew Distillery
Co-Founder – Eureka! Ranch Distilled Spirits Group

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