{"id":1573,"date":"2012-06-17T20:38:19","date_gmt":"2012-06-17T20:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=1573"},"modified":"2012-06-17T20:38:19","modified_gmt":"2012-06-17T20:38:19","slug":"pruning-the-niggle-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=1573","title":{"rendered":"Pruning the Niggle Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sometimes our daily\u00a0existence feels like a perpetual struggle between two opposing forces: the\u00a0positive force of innovation, learning, progress and success; and\u00a0the opposing force of cynicism, complacency, stagnation and failure.\u00a0 Often the balance-of-opposing-forces is so close that\u00a0even small differences of opinion can\u00a0derail us – especially if they are persistent. And we want\u00a0to stay on course to improvement.<\/p>\n

Niggles are the irritating things that happen every day. Day after day. Niggles are persistent. So\u00a0when we are in our “ying-yang” equilibrium and “balanced\u00a0on the edge” then\u00a0just one\u00a0extra niggle can\u00a0push us off our emotional tight-rope. And we know it.\u00a0The\u00a0final straw!<\/p>\n

So to keep ourselves on\u00a0track to success\u00a0we need to “nail” niggles.\u00a0 But which ones? There seem to be so many! Where do we start?<\/p>\n

If we\u00a0recorded\u00a0just one day\u00a0and from that we listed all the positive things that happened on green PostIt\u00ae notes\u00a0and all the negatives things on red\u00a0ones –\u00a0then we would be left with\u00a0a random-looking pile\u00a0of red and green notes. Good days would have more green, and bad days\u00a0would have more red –\u00a0and all days would have both. And that is just the way it is. Yes? But\u00a0are they actually random? Is there a deeper connection?<\/p>\n

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\u00a0which also causes the “someone\u00a0arrived late for my important\u00a0meeting” niggle. The red leaf is attached to a red twig which in turn sprouts\u00a0other red leaves. The red leaves connect to other red leaves;\u00a0not to green ones.<\/p>\n

If we tug on a green leaf – a Nugget – we find that it too is connected\u00a0to other nuggets. The “congratulations on a job well done” nugget is connected to the the\u00a0“feedback is important”\u00a0nugget from which sprouts\u00a0the\u00a0“opportunities for learning” nugget. Our green leaf is attached, indirectly, to many other green leaves; not to\u00a0red ones.<\/p>\n

It seems that our\u00a0red leaves (niggles) and our green leaves (nuggets) are\u00a0connected – but not directly to each\u00a0other.\u00a0It 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\u00a0more green than red and if we want to progress steadily\u00a0in the direction of sustained improvement –\u00a0then\u00a0we need to prune the niggle tree\u00a0(red leaves) and leave the nugget tree (green leaves)\u00a0unscathed.<\/p>\n

The problem is that if we just cut off one or two\u00a0red leaves new ones sprout quickly from the red twigs to replace them. We quickly learn that this apprach is\u00a0futile. We suspect\u00a0that if we were able to cut all the red leaves off at once then the niggle tree might shrivel and\u00a0die – but that looks impossible.\u00a0We need to be creative and we need to search\u00a0deeper. With the\u00a0\u00a0knowledge\u00a0that the red-leaves are part of one tree and we can\u00a0remove multiple\u00a0red leaves in one snip by\u00a0working our way back\u00a0from the leaves, up the\u00a0red twigs and to the red branches.\u00a0If we\u00a0prune far enough back\u00a0then we\u00a0can expect a large number of interconnected red leaves to wither and fall off – leaving the healthy green leaves\u00a0more space and more light to grow on that part of the tree.<\/p>\n

Improvement Science is about pruning the Niggle tree to\u00a0make space for the Nugget tree to grow. It is about creating an environment for the\u00a0Green shoots of innovation to sprout.\u00a0\u00a0Most resistance comes from those who feed on the Red leaves –\u00a0the Cynics – and\u00a0if we remove\u00a0enough red branches then they\u00a0will go hungry. And\u00a0now the Cynics\u00a0have a choice: learn to taste and\u00a0appreciate\u00a0the Green leaves or “find another tree”.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0want a\u00a0Greener tree- with fewer poisonous Red leaves on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes our daily\u00a0existence feels like a perpetual struggle between two opposing forces: the\u00a0positive force of innovation, learning, progress and success; and\u00a0the opposing force of cynicism, complacency, stagnation and failure.\u00a0 Often the balance-of-opposing-forces is so close that\u00a0even small differences of opinion can\u00a0derail us – especially if they are persistent. And we want\u00a0to stay on course to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Pruning the Niggle Tree”<\/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":[5,42,43,45,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4n-chart","category-how","category-why","category-what","category-teach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573","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=1573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}