The higher we are on the totem pole, the further away we usually are from doing the everyday “work” of our business. Given our focus on our organization’s vision and how we’re going to reach that vision, we’d be hamstrung spending our time coding or assembling or shipping. We can’t do both well.

Except maybe when we want to make an impact…like perhaps when we’re leading a change. That’s when our job can very well be “doing the work.”

***

I’m reminded of a chief information officer colleague who came asking for help with a colossal change in how our company developed software…from something called “waterfall” to something called “agile.” Big change.

This was my third company to go through such a change, and I’d seen it done well and I’d seen it done poorly at the two previous places. So I knew enough to ask her a probing question: “What’s going to get our people to want to change?”

Most people answer this question by saying, “Well, um, they have to change.” Well, um, they don’t have to. (See previous newletter). We need them to want to.

A couple days later, she came back to me and said: “You know, Al, we’re late with this change. Lots of other companies have already moved from waterfall to agile. And a lot of our people came here because we were still doing waterfall while their companies were changing. They’d rather switch companies than change. And we can’t lose so many people…we just can’t. You’re right, we need them to want to.”

That’s when she proved the power of “doing the work.” It’s when the very busy, very well-compensated, top-of-the-totem-pole CIO became a trainer. She took train-the-trainer lessons and learned how to train people on agile software development. She didn’t just say “this is important.” She DID “this is important.”

It turned heads. And it turned hearts. As I explained previously, every decision requires both head and heart. In this case, even most of the former “job jumpers” decided to make the change work.

***

So, no, we can’t do the work all the time. But there are times—like a change—when it can really make sense.

Let me know what you think. I look forward to being in touch.

Al Comeaux