A snow globe’s chance in….
“Snow globes? It’s July 4th weekend, why is Tom talking about snow globes, for crying out loud?”
Well, I’ll tell you. I had lunch with one of my favorite people just a few days ago, and she used a perfect analogy for how most companies manage change. It was such a beautiful analogy that I asked her if I could use it, and she said okay.
Most companies approach change with a snow globe mentality. They have a snow globe and want to change it. So they pick it up, give it a good shake, and put it right back down where it was before. After a few minutes (or hours, or days, or weeks) they come back to the snow globe and realize that nothing inside the globe has really changed. The same little tableau is still in place.
Maybe this whole snow globe thing is tougher than it looks. Hire a consultant! They can come in and give it a go, all the while counting how many times they shake it, how hard they shake it, and how long it takes for the snow flakes to settle down. They might even provide a nice gap analysis that shows you how far each individual flake moved from its original pre-shake position.
But of course, the tableau never changes, so it’s time for more consultants. An automation expert hooks the snow globe up to a system that will agitate the globe at predetermined times. A feng shui consultant will place the snow globe in the middle of a zen garden. The out-of-th- box types will hang the snow globe upside down from the ceiling, or drain the water out of it and fill it with another liquid.
But the tableau never changes. So you have three choices here:
1. Keep going until you break the snow globe, and go buy another one.
2. Keep changing the players in the hopes that you get some kind of change.
3. Hire someone who will simply ask you why you have a snow globe and not something else.
See, only #3 will get you what you really want, and that’s where the change comes in. Think about it.
