Last year I knew we had a rare opportunity. We were moving out of a facility we had inhabited for forty years. On one day, and one day only, everyone was going to be a first-timer.
Why was this a rare opportunity? We had no muscle memory in this place. We would not, out of mere reflex, do what we did last week. It was a rare opportunity to shake up some of the ruts we were in without announcing the change. The space would do some of the changing for us...and it did.
I knew something else as well. It would take less than a month to start to form new habits...some good, and some not so good. The predictability was stunning. Within a month we had been melted from old habits, remolded and were already starting to set in to new ways.
I stated above that some habits were good, and some not so good. Bad habits have one common element...they are habits that cause us to do what is personally comfortable, but not necessarily what is best for the newcomer, the outsiders or the organization as a whole.
Whoever first described humans as creatures of habit was a genius. We are so habitual it is mind-blowingly predictable. One thing can be predicted every time...we will do what feels most comfortable to us, despite whether it is what is best for anyone else. Why? The motive is not necessarily evil...it's just natural. Creatures of habit love ruts. Ruts are comfortable and predicable. Ruts feel good.
Years ago I heard Bill Hybels make a statement that has haunted me ever since--
Leadership is relentless
Only a person who has held the reigns of leadership for an extended period of time can fully appreciate those words. Leaders are rut busters. They are in a relentless state of breaking up ruts. While ruts feel comfortable, they are the subtly dangerous habits that create a climate of insiders and outsiders.
I love breaking up ruts because I know how bad they are for everyone---the person in the rut as well as the people being excluded by the rut. The more ruts...the deeper the ruts...the more we forget why we are doing what we are doing in the first place. We get off group mission and on to the individual agenda of creating personal comfort zones.
I hate breaking up ruts because it is inevitable...people get offended.
More on that tomorrow.
