{"id":290,"date":"2010-05-04T06:05:46","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T06:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=290"},"modified":"2010-05-04T06:05:46","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T06:05:46","slug":"to-push-or-not-to-push-that-is-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=290","title":{"rendered":"To Push or Not to Push? Is that the Question?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Improvement implies change;<\/p>\n

… change implies learning;<\/p>\n

… learning implies asking questions;<\/p>\n

… and asking\u00a0questions implies listening with both humility and confidence.<\/p>\n

The humility of knowing that their are many things we do not yet understand; and the confidence of knowing that there are many ways we can grow our understanding.<\/p>\n

Change is a force – and when we apply a force to a system we meet resistance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0natural response to\u00a0feeling resistance is to push harder; and when we do that the force of resistance increases. With each escalation the amount of effort required for both sides to maintain the stalemate increases\u00a0and the outcome of the trial is decided by the strength and stamina of the protagonists.<\/p>\n

One may break, tire or give up\u00a0…. eventually.<\/p>\n

The counter-intuitive reaction to meeting resistance is to push less and to\u00a0learn more; and\u00a0it is more effective strategy.<\/p>\n

\n

We can observe this principle in\u00a0the behaviour of a system\u00a0that\u00a0is required\u00a0to deliver a specific performance – such as a delivery time.\u00a0 The required performance is often labelled a “target” and is usually enforced with a carrot-flavoured-stick wrapped in a legal contract.<\/p>\n

The characteristic sign on the performance chart of\u00a0pushing against\u00a0an immovable target is the Horned Gaussian<\/a> – the natural behaviour of the system painfully distorted by the target.<\/p>\n

Our natural reaction is to push harder; and initially we may be rewarded with\u00a0some progress. \u00a0And with a Herculean effort we may actually achieve the target –\u00a0though at what cost?<\/p>\n

Our front-line\u00a0fighters are engaged in a never-ending\u00a0trial of strength, holding back the Horn that\u00a0towers over them and that threatens to tip over the target at any moment.<\/p>\n

The effort, time, and money expended is out of all proportion to the improvement gained and just maintaining the status quo\u00a0is exhausting.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0unconscious\u00a0belief is that if\u00a0we weather the storm and push hard enough\u00a0we will “break” the resistance,\u00a0and after that\u00a0it will be plain sailing. This strategy might work in the affairs of Man – it doesn’t work with Nature.<\/p>\n

We won’t break the Laws of Nature by pushing harder. They will break us.<\/p>\n

So, consider what might\u00a0happen if\u00a0we did the opposite?<\/p>\n

When\u00a0we feel resistance\u00a0we\u00a0pull back a bit;\u00a0we ask questions;\u00a0we seek\u00a0to see\u00a0from the opposite perspective and\u00a0to broaden our own\u00a0perspective; we seek\u00a0to expand\u00a0our knowledge and to deepen our\u00a0understanding.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0we\u00a0redirect our effort, time and money into understanding\u00a0the source\u00a0of the resistance\u00a0we uncover\u00a0novel\u00a0options;\u00a0we get those golden “eureka!” moments that lead to synergism rather than to antagonism; to win-win rather than lose-lose outcomes.<\/p>\n

Those options were there all along – they were just not visible with our push mindset.<\/p>\n

Change is a force – so “May the 4th be with you<\/em>“.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Improvement implies change; … change implies learning; … learning implies asking questions; … and asking\u00a0questions implies listening with both humility and confidence. The humility of knowing that their are many things we do not yet understand; and the confidence of knowing that there are many ways we can grow our understanding. Change is a force … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “To Push or Not to Push? Is that the Question?”<\/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":[34,35,42,43],"tags":[135,138,222,240],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-questions","category-reflections","category-how","category-why","tag-horned-gaussian","tag-improvement","tag-push","tag-resistance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","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=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}