Sometimes our daily existence feels like a perpetual struggle between two opposing forces: the positive force of innovation, learning, progress and success; and the opposing force of cynicism, complacency, stagnation and failure. Often the balance-of-opposing-forces is so close that even small differences of opinion can derail us – especially if they are persistent. And we want to stay on course to improvement.
Niggles are the irritating things that happen every day. Day after day. Niggles are persistent. So when we are in our “ying-yang” equilibrium and “balanced on the edge” then just one extra niggle can push us off our emotional tight-rope. And we know it. The final straw!
So to keep ourselves on track to success we need to “nail” niggles. But which ones? There seem to be so many! Where do we start?
If we recorded just one day and from that we listed all the positive things that happened on green PostIt® notes and all the negatives things on red ones – then we would be left with a random-looking pile of red and green notes. Good days would have more green, and bad days would have more red – and all days would have both. And that is just the way it is. Yes? But are they actually random? Is there a deeper connection?
Experience teaches us that when we Investigate-a-Niggle we find it is connected to other niggles. The “cannot find a parking place” niggle is because of the “car park is full” niggle which also causes the “someone arrived late for my important meeting” niggle. The red leaf is attached to a red twig which in turn sprouts other red leaves. The red leaves connect to other red leaves; not to green ones.
If we tug on a green leaf – a Nugget – we find that it too is connected to other nuggets. The “congratulations on a job well done” nugget is connected to the the “feedback is important” nugget from which sprouts the “opportunities for learning” nugget. Our green leaf is attached, indirectly, to many other green leaves; not to red ones.
It seems that our red leaves (niggles) and our green leaves (nuggets) are connected – but not directly to each other. It is as if we have two separate but tightly intertwined plants competing with each other for space and light. So if we want a tree that is more green than red and if we want to progress steadily in the direction of sustained improvement – then we need to prune the niggle tree (red leaves) and leave the nugget tree (green leaves) unscathed.
The problem is that if we just cut off one or two red leaves new ones sprout quickly from the red twigs to replace them. We quickly learn that this apprach is futile. We suspect that if we were able to cut all the red leaves off at once then the niggle tree might shrivel and die – but that looks impossible. We need to be creative and we need to search deeper. With the knowledge that the red-leaves are part of one tree and we can remove multiple red leaves in one snip by working our way back from the leaves, up the red twigs and to the red branches. If we prune far enough back then we can expect a large number of interconnected red leaves to wither and fall off – leaving the healthy green leaves more space and more light to grow on that part of the tree.
Improvement Science is about pruning the Niggle tree to make space for the Nugget tree to grow. It is about creating an environment for the Green shoots of innovation to sprout. Most resistance comes from those who feed on the Red leaves – the Cynics – and if we remove enough red branches then they will go hungry. And now the Cynics have a choice: learn to taste and appreciate the Green leaves or “find another tree”.
We want a Greener tree- with fewer poisonous Red leaves on it.