Many barriers to improvement are invisible.
This is because they are caused by what is not present rather than what is. They are gaps or omissions.
Some gaps are blindingly obvious. This is because we expect to see something there so we notice when it is missing. We would notice the gap if a rope bridge across chasm is obviously missing because only end posts are visible.
Many gaps are not obvious. This is because we have no experience or expectation. The gap is invisible. We are blind to the omission.
These are the gaps that we accidentally stumble into. Such as a gap in our knowledge and understanding that we cannot see. These are the gaps that create the fear of failure. And the fear is especially real because the gap is invisible and we only know when it is too late.
It is like walking across an emotional minefield. At any moment we could step on an ignorance mine and our confidence would be blasted into fragments.
So our natural and reasonable reaction is to stay outside the emotional minefield and inside our comfort zones – where we feel safe. We give up trying to learn and trying to improve. Every-one hopes that Some-one or Any-one will do it for us. No-one does.
The path to Improvement is always across an emotional minefield because improvement implies unlearning. So we need a better design than blundering about hoping not to fall into an invisible gap. We need a safer design.
There are a number of options:
Option 1. Ask someone who knows the way across the minefield and can demonstrate it. Someone who knows where the mines are and knows how to avoid them. Someone to tell us where to step and where not to.
Option 2. Clear a new path and mark it clearly so others can trust that it is safe. Remove the ignorance mines. Find and Fill the knowledge map.
Option 1 is quicker but it leaves the ignorance mines in place. So sooner or later someone will step on one. Boom!
We need to be able to do Option 2.
The obvious strategy for Option 2 is to clear the ignorance mines. We could do this by deliberately blundering about setting off the mines. We could adopt the burn-and-scrape or learn-from-mistakes approach.
Or we could detect, defuse and remove them.
The former requires people willing to take emotional risks; the latter does not require such a sacrifice.
And “learn-by-mistakes” only works if people are able to make mistakes visibly so everyone can learn. In an adversarial, competitive, distrustful context this can not happen: and the result is usually for the unwilling troops to be forced into the minefield with the threat of a firing-squad if they do not!
And where a mistake implies irreversible harm it is not acceptable to learn that way. Mistakes are covered up. The ignorance mines are re-set for the next hapless victim to step on. The emotional carnage continues. Any change 0f sustained, system-wide improvement is blocked.
So in a low-trust cultural context the detect-defuse-and-remove strategy is the safer option.
And this requires a proactive approach to finding the gaps in understanding; a proactive approach to filling the knowledge holes; and a proactive approach to sharing what was learned.
Or we could ask someone who knows where the ignorance mines are and work our way through finding and filling our knowledge gaps. By that means any of us can build a safe, effective and efficient path to sustainable improvement.
And the person to ask is someone who can demonstrate a portfolio of improvement in practice – an experienced Improvement Science Practitioner.
And we can all learn to become an ISP and then guide others across their own emotional minefields.
All we need to do is take the first step on a well-trodden path to sustained improvement.