The 95% - 5% rule

dlincecum — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:59:00 GMT

This week I regailed two co-workers in my office about something I have often pondered about my life in business. It seems like I spend most of my time persuading others to do things. These "things" may be making changes, taking a new course, stopping or starting some effort, etc.. It usually has to do with change.

This diatribe came on after being informed that I needed to meet with so-in-so to explain why I wanted such-insuch to be done and how it fit in to the strategy and what the long-term plan was. Have you been there?

I could only say that this is a big part of my job and sometimes it gets really hard. This is the "work" part of work. I don't really remember whether I am left brained or right brained and how that fits into this stuff - but I think it does. I often times remind those I work with that we are change agents. We have been hired to grow the business, change the product landscape, respond to outside forces that may not be fully seen yet. This often puts us in the line of fire.

Some people naturally want change. Some people naturally don't. Some people adopt change slowly - some quickly. I think about change all of the time - the "what to do" part of it comes easily to me because I am always pondering it in the background. The real work is figuring out how to get others motivated to see what is possible through the change.

Later that day John Kuehl sent me a link to Seth Godin's blog. Seth is one of the new business gurus of this century and has written a swath of books, mostly about marketing. I have read a couple of these books and really enjoyed them. But the post of the day was about 'How to read a business book.' I was amazed to see that he was talking about my diatribe! In a very different context of course. Seth states that he spends 95% of his writing trying to persuade the reader to make changes and only 5% of writing on the "recipe," or what the change is. This is my point.

I've also been reading "The world is flat" by Thomas Friedman and I commented to someone that my only frustration with the book was that he introdcued a "flattening" concept and a little background on why it was so important and then spent a huge amount of time massing detailed examples of why he was right about this.

I know that this is a normal part of life. I am a natural born salesperson and therefore I sell. I sell my wife on arranging the cabinets a certain way or loading the dishwasher the RIGHT way. I try to sell my kids on going for a walk with me. This is just what I do.

These forces of 'change pushing' and 'change resisting' are what keeps companies like ETC balanced, as long as the forces are balanced. If we changed all the time we would surely fail. If we never change we will be left behind. What really makes the difference is small changes being made every day. These result in big changes that no one even has to notice until they are complete. This is more comfortable for everyone. BUT, every now and then, big change has to occur. This is the work.

David Lincecum

Light Minds Think Alike : change in business

The 95% - 5% rule