{"id":1307,"date":"2012-02-18T08:26:04","date_gmt":"2012-02-18T08:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2012-02-18T08:26:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T08:26:04","slug":"tilt-nudge-poke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=1307","title":{"rendered":"Tilt-Nudge-Poke"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Improvement requires change and change requires learning – so knowing how to guide learning is\u00a0an essential skill for an improvement scientist.<\/p>\n

There is a common\u00a0belief that we learn\u00a0by watching and listening – and therefore that\u00a0we can teach by showing and talking. This belief is incorrect. We all learn by doing something different and comparing what we perceived with what we predicted. So what prompts us to do<\/strong> something different?\u00a0 The answer is we are nudged.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u00a0learn and change over time as a result of\u00a0a series of small\u00a0nudges – the effects of which add up. We can simulate this behaviour easily.<\/p>\n

Find a tray and a piece of\u00a0kitchen paper and draw two circles on the paper. Put the paper on the tray and\u00a0then\u00a0put a\u00a0heap of granulated sugar\u00a0on the leftmost circle. It will stay where it is placed.\u00a0Hold the tray horizontal and\u00a0nudge the tray repeatedly by tapping on its edge with a finger. The heap of sugar will spread out\u00a0in all directions – and\u00a0only a small proportion goes to wards the second circle – the intended\u00a0direction of improvement.<\/p>\n

Now repeat the\u00a0simulation but this time tilt<\/strong> the\u00a0tray slightly in the direction of improvement\u00a0so that\u00a0the heap stays put – and then\u00a0nudge the tray. The heap of sugar will spread out and <\/strong>more will move in the direction of the second circle – the improvement goal.\u00a0 The nudging is necessary but it is not sufficient –\u00a0a tilt in the intended direction of improvement is also necessary but not sufficient.\u00a0Actual\u00a0improvement requires both.<\/p>\n

Life\u00a0provides a continuous\u00a0series of random nudges – so in reality all that is needed to improve is to set the direction of tilt – which implies\u00a0making it easier to move in the direction of improvement than away from it. Setting the direction of tilt is one facet of leadership – and it requires\u00a0aligning the reward with the improvement. Very often this is not done and improvement becomes an uphill struggle that is unsustainable and unmaintainable.<\/p>\n

Even when the reward is aligned with the improvement we cannot guarantee\u00a0success – there is another factor.<\/p>\n

Now repeat the sugar flow simulation\u00a0and\u00a0this time create a physical barrier\u00a0between the heap and the goal – such as a row of sugar cubes or a fold in the kitchen paper. Create a barrier\u00a0that\u00a0the tilting and nudging is not strong enough to move. Now the\u00a0sugar flow will be blocked\u00a0by the barrier and\u00a0our temptation is to\u00a0increase the tilt and apply bigger nudges – but this increase-the-pressure-by-pushing-harder strategy has a risk because when the barrier eventially\u00a0breaks the\u00a0backlog of sugar lurches forward in an uncontrolled surge.\u00a0Uncontrolled impprovement is not what we want.<\/p>\n

So the second role of the improvement scientist is to\u00a0help to remove the barriers – and this requires a more focussed action\u00a0than a tilt or a nudge.\u00a0It requires a\u00a0poke<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Pokes are uncomfortable for the poker and for the\u00a0pokee – and\u00a0the skill\u00a0to master the art of the positive poke<\/em>. Negative pokes are surprising, emotionally painful and\u00a0result in an angry\u00a0reaction which damages the pokee. Positive pokes are surprising, emotionally uncomfortable\u00a0and result in an excited\u00a0proaction which develops the pokee.<\/p>\n

So now poke the barrier\u00a0where it crosses the line that joins the two circles so that it is reduced or removed at that point –\u00a0and then tilt and nudge as before. The backlog of sugar will funnel through the gap in the barrier in a well-focussed stream\u00a0in the direction of improvement. The barrier actually helps to direct the\u00a0the flow so a precise poke is necessary.<\/p>\n

The effective improvement scientist needs to know how to tilt<\/strong>, when to nudge<\/strong> and where\u00a0to poke<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Improvement requires change and change requires learning – so knowing how to guide learning is\u00a0an essential skill for an improvement scientist. There is a common\u00a0belief that we learn\u00a0by watching and listening – and therefore that\u00a0we can teach by showing and talking. This belief is incorrect. We all learn by doing something different and comparing what … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Tilt-Nudge-Poke”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}