{"id":2894,"date":"2013-03-09T13:34:56","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T13:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=2894"},"modified":"2013-03-09T13:34:56","modified_gmt":"2013-03-09T13:34:56","slug":"the-five-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=2894","title":{"rendered":"The Five Ages of Improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Improvement is not easy<\/strong>. If it were\u00a0this blog would\u00a0not\u00a0attract any\u00a0vistors.\u00a0\u00a0The data\u00a0says that the hit rate is increasing. So what questions\u00a0are visitors asking?<\/p>\n

What makes improvement so difficult?<\/p>\n

In a word – disappointment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Or rather the cumulative effect of repeated disappointments.<\/p>\n

Over time we become emotionally damaged by disappointment. Our youthful mountain of optimism is slowly eroded and washed away by the\u00a0stormy reality\u00a0that life throws at us.<\/p>\n

Is this emotional erosion inevitable? I believe not. Some seem to avoid it with innate ability\u00a0– the rest of us have to learn how. To do that we need to understand how the emotional erosion happens and with that insight we can design an anti-disappointment defense for ourselves.<\/p>\n

I see it as a\u00a0time-dependent process with five phases. The divisions are somewhat artificial because it is a continuous process; the\u00a0phases overlap and we do not all progress at the same rate. Each phase lasts about 10-15 years it seems.<\/p>\n

The First Age – Tender Idealism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Tender_Idealist\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0natural child-like behaviour that we are born with is\u00a0curious, playful, happy, and optimistic.\u00a0 We arrive with no knowledge of the real world.\u00a0 Our starting expectation is\u00a0high because all we have experienced\u00a0is the safe, warm, fuzzy\u00a0redness of the womb. Birth is our first big disappointment! Ouch! It is cold out here and suddenly we have to do lots more\u00a0for ourselves such as breathing, keeping warm, eating, weeing, and pooing. Waaaaaah!<\/p>\n

Some claim\u00a0that we spend our\u00a0whole lives trying in vain to regain that wonderful, warm\u00a0womb-like feeling of security and comfort.<\/p>\n

But after\u00a0our birthday\u00a0surprise we activate our innate curiosity and we learn quickly as we explore the real world. We do not forget though –\u00a0 we\u00a0dream about how\u00a0the world could be more\u00a0womb-like. We\u00a0are natural idealists. We all\u00a0want to recreate a reliable comfort-zone. And anything that gets in our way needs to be removed! The old ideas and the old farts who cling on to them need to go!\u00a0The problems and solutions are obvious; crystal clear; black-or-white; day-or-night; all-or-nothing; either-or. We start as Tender Idealists<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And we learn quickly that reality resists us.<\/p>\n

The Second Age\u00a0 – Tearful Optimism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Tearful_Optimist\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As our experience grows the\u00a0perfectly sharp edges of our idealism become smoothed off: eroded by the emotional impacts of numerous\u00a0small disappointments. We remain optimists but\u00a0our expectations are lowered and our frustrations\u00a0are elevated.\u00a0We are told\u00a0by the Older-and-Wiser that when we fall off our bikes or horses we should brush ourselves down, get back on and try again.\u00a0“No\u00a0Pain No Gain<\/em>” they preach. But it really hurts<\/em> when we fall off – we graze our knees and we bruise our egos. We cry tears of frustration, pain and fear.\u00a0But we\u00a0strive to retain our optimism. We try again, and again, and again. And we are young so we have energy and stamina. We are not too damaged – not yet. We are Tearful Optimists<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Third Age – Tired Realism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Tired_Realist\"<\/a>But reality is relentless. The battering by the sunshine and storms of life continue\u00a0– apparently unaffected by our strenuous efforts to create calm.\u00a0 And we keep\u00a0slipping\u00a0as the complexity mud gets thicker, deeper and stickier.\u00a0We\u00a0become\u00a0more, and more tired. We try\u00a0less and we sit on the fence more. It\u00a0is\u00a0less difficult, less tiring, less self-disappointing. We develop a taste for spectator sports. We adopt a team.\u00a0We cheer when\u00a0they win and we\u00a0chide when they lose.\u00a0Reality has eroded our optimism to the point where it has become so fragile\u00a0that we dare not pit it against new challenges. We fear the seemingly inevitable failure and the consequent disappointment. Just one more tumble could break us completely. We have become Tired Realists<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Fourth Age – Turgid Skepticism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Turgid_Skeptic\"<\/a>Now the rules of the life-game change. We must now protect\u00a0the last precious vestiges of our hope\u00a0and we must defend our life-dream from despair.\u00a0So we build barriers that block the new Idealists and the new Optimists from blindly generating more disappointments for themselves – and for us.\u00a0 We do not want to lose all hope.\u00a0We\u00a0exercise our intellect and our experience\u00a0and we\u00a0become experts in the “Yes … but<\/em>” game.\u00a0 We dispell new ideas and we say that they are not new and they are not worth trying. We say\u00a0“Yes, but we tried that and it did not work<\/em>“. We create a red-taped morass of bureaucracy\u00a0to slow them\u00a0down and to tire them out. And we can do that because by now we have gravitated to Positions of Authority. We write the Rules. And\u00a0our\u00a0rules\u00a0all start with the word\u00a0“No”.<\/p>\n

The Tired Realists sit on the fence to watch the New Optimists battle with\u00a0us Old Skeptics. Just as they had done when they still had the energy. It\u00a0becomes\u00a0their favourite spectator sport. A few optimists\u00a0navigate the bureaucracy swamp and have their\u00a0innovations implemented. Some even succeed and shine for a while. All fade and fail eventually. The emotional erosion continues relentlessly.<\/p>\n

The skeptics are well-intentioned though – they want to prevent avoidable disappointment – but their strategy\u00a0is non-specific.\u00a0It blocks all innovation – both the worthwhile and the worthless. And their preferred\u00a0tool is the simple question\u00a0“Where is the evidence<\/em>?” No evidence means “game over” but having evidence is no guarantor of success. Evidence means rich opportunities for nit-picking. The more academic skeptics discard what cannot be proved statistically beyond all reasonable doubt and unintentionally create an unwinnable\u00a0game of Catch-22.\u00a0 And over time their examination of\u00a0the evidence becomes less and less rigorous. They become increasingly Turgid Skeptics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Fifth Age – Toxic Cynicism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Toxic_Cynic\"<\/a>The final age starts when the skeptic suffers dream failure and enters the Land of the Hopeless.\u00a0Here any\u00a0idealism, optimism and realism\u00a0are discounted by default and\u00a0without respect. Their\u00a0Pavlovian reflex is now fully established –\u00a0every one and every thing is discounted without conscious thought. This is the Creed of the Cynics. The continuous discounting acts\u00a0as an oily emotional toxin. It is\u00a0called cynicide – and it poisons the whole organisation. It greases the slippery slope from Realist\u00a0through Skeptic to Cynic – who may be a minority but the damage they create is disproportionately\u00a0large. The Toxic Cynics<\/strong> create the waves that trigger\u00a0the storms that\u00a0drive the whole disappointment process.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0Toxic Cynics<\/strong>\u00a0are indiscriminate. A Tender Idealiss can have their fragile and nascent curiosity and optimism destroyed by just one poisonous barb\u00a0fired accurately but unwittingly by a habitually cynical parent figure.<\/p>\n

\"stick_figure_drawing_three_check_marks_150_wht_5283\"<\/a>So\u00a0what does an experienced\u00a0Improvement Scientist do to avoid the decline to Cynicism? What strategies do they\u00a0employ to deflect and dissipate the storms and to defend themselves from their emotionally erosive action?<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>\u00a0they\u00a0learn of the weathering process and the damage\u00a0it does and they actively remove themselves from the most toxic parts of their organisations. Why be exposed to cynicide for no good reason? They avoid the cynics,\u00a0\u00a0their congregations and their conversations. They\u00a0avoid the\u00a0emotional hooks-and-lines that cynics cast and use to draw others into the\u00a0Drama Triangle – the negative emotional maelstrom from which the unwitting victims\u00a0may never escape.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong> they learn to channel their own\u00a0disappointment into improvement. They learn that after they have failed to meet their own expectation they must step back, reflect, understand what happened, formulate a new design, and then try again. Not just to blindly\u00a0repeat the same action in the hope that just determination and repetition is sufficient. It is not. They also learn to do the same after a success – they reflect and understand what\u00a0delivered the delight and how to make that happen more often.<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong> they learn to\u00a0engage the skeptics in a constructive dialog. Skeptics are useful\u00a0– their sharp\u00a0questions\u00a0can help to improve an innovation as much as to destroy one. And they learn how to disarm the cynics. They learn how to neutralise the cynicide poison – by exposing it to the\u00a0antidote – Respectful Challenge of the Cynical Behaviour.<\/p>\n

\"leader\"<\/a>Effective leaders are de facto<\/em> improvement scientists. Effective leaders carve an alternative\u00a0groove for the Idealists, Optimists and Realists – the path to Capability, Credibility, and\u00a0Sagacity. Effective leaders nurture the Idealists because\u00a0they are the\u00a0\u00a0future Optimists. Effective leaders support the Optimists because\u00a0they are the future leaders. Effective leaders\u00a0coax the Realists out of passive observation and into active participation. Effective leaders respect the Skeptics\u00a0for their\u00a0skills\u00a0and restrict their bureaucracy.\u00a0 Effective leaders block cynicide production by offering the Cynics a simple binary choice: healthy skepticism or The Door.<\/p>\n

The Five Ages\u00a0represent learned roles not inherited attributes. We can all choose our behaviour. We can all\u00a0choose to play any of the five roles at any time. We are not Saints\u00a0or Sinners. We are all\u00a0fallible; we are all on the same life path and we all have the same choices:<\/p>\n

Do we choose the path of continual improvement or do we choose the path\u00a0of constant disappointment?<\/em><\/p>\n

A\u00a0wise decision\u00a0is required.<\/p>\n

And for the\u00a0Optimists, Realists and Skeptics out there – hard evidence that Improvement Science works\u00a0in practice – even when the participants are highly skeptical – the six week update on\u00a0the\u00a0real example described in The Writing On The Wall – Part I <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Improvement is not easy. If it were\u00a0this blog would\u00a0not\u00a0attract any\u00a0vistors.\u00a0\u00a0The data\u00a0says that the hit rate is increasing. So what questions\u00a0are visitors asking? What makes improvement so difficult? In a word – disappointment. Or rather the cumulative effect of repeated disappointments. Over time we become emotionally damaged by disappointment. Our youthful mountain of optimism is slowly … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Five Ages of Improvement”<\/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":[12,13,35,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carveout","category-chimpware","category-reflections","category-victimosis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894","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=2894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}