In a current best seller, we get a parable about mice that wake up one day to find "someone moved my cheese." This book is supposed to help organizations better respond to change and improve processes. 

Is the point people are as stupid as mice or does it merely provide a new excuse when individuals behave less effectively than amoebas? At least amoebas ooze around barriers!

I don’t want mice or amoebas tinkering with my organization. I doubt that individuals who think they’re mice will do much better—especially if you accept that these poor creatures woke up one day to no cheese and sat in the cheese warehouse for days waiting for it to return.

If you answered the cheese, you’re right. The cheese is the desired outcome.

Our little furry friend has it right. He’s focused on the cheese, the competition and finding a way to "beat it." If there’s no cheese, he’ll find some more. He won’t waste effort on an empty trap as the mice that sit dumbfounded and whine, "who moved my cheese?" 

Unfortunately, this picture is very much like mindsets and communications patterns that develop in organizations. 

What seems proactive is really defensive. 

Watch the trap. Instead of creatively focusing on how to find the cheese, individuals obsess on the giant looming trap and waste energy on ineffective ways defending against the trap: politics, CYA, and reacting to the competition. 

Even less productive is the "ain’t it awful" game. Individuals do nothing but talk and gossip about the trap.

1. See Change as an Opportunity. 

Anyone with experience with mice and mousetraps knows you have smart mice that find ways to spring the trap and eat the cheese. 

These smart mice are not responding to the situation as a threat, but as an opportunity—to get the cheese. The smart mouse learns how the trap works and works the system in a creative, not self-destructive manner. 

People can accomplish this too in the following ways.

2. Take Control of YOUR ATTITUDE. There are many ways to take control: one is to recognize what you don’t control and adjust your attitude toward it. 

For example if an employee fears job loss, the employee no longer focuses on the purpose of his job, but on the risk of losing it. The individual has lost sight of the cheese. 

During a change implementation in a customer service area, the organization was placed for sale. Fortunately, the change implementation was planned around a career development program where individuals were learning new skills to be more effective and versatile. 

A creative manager used the change as an opportunity. 

She reasoned correctly she had no control whether the organization would be sold. She and her employees did have control of whether, as individuals, they developed new skills that made them more marketable—and had a perfect time to practice. The organization was not sold; the change was successful! Everybody won because each focused on the cheese: being valuable to your current or prospective employer. 

This customer service department took control of the controllable.

3. Take Control of the Situation.  

One of my favorite stories is a client who got tired of seeing women die needlessly from breast cancer. Dr. Dixie Melillo formed The Rose—a breast care center in Houston that provides mammography to women regardless of ability to pay.

 If you know anything about breast cancer, you know detected early, chances of survival are 92%. 

Forming The Rose that helped 4000 uninsured women in one year alone would be enough for many individuals to rest on their laurels.

4. Check Your Ego and Focus on The Cheese.

The most telling story is how Dr. Dixie stays focused on the cheese, despite the honors and acclaim she’s earned. 

An uninsured woman had a very bad radiology report and was immediately sent to one of the large charity hospitals. In one of an overworked doctor’s less stellar moments, he not only attempted to stall treatment for three months (a death sentence); but also told the patient she was poor and lucky to have any medical care. 

The staff at The Rose had prepared the patient to call them if she was not treated immediately, and she did. 

Instead of focusing on her own ego, Dr. Dixie called the physician and gave him an incentive to do the right thing. She told him she would never darken his door again if he would have his radiologist read the x-ray and say this patient did not need immediate treatment. 

We have another cancer survivor because Dr. Dixie stayed focused on the cheese: her patient’s health.

5. Find a New Way to Work the System.  

The Rose didn’t stop there, but instead of going up against the system, the staff at The Rose found a new manner to work with the hospital district. 

Staff at The Rose developed positive relationships with the Case Workers at the hospital. They found advocates within the system. By nurturing relationships with Case Workers, better patient referral services exist. It took creativity and focus on the cheese.

6. Change the System.  

Dr. Dixie doesn’t stop—she now wants to help educate physicians to be more compassionate through teaching at The Rose. She has the wisdom to realize change happens because individuals make it so. Rather than take on an impersonal, overworked organization, she realizes when individuals are educated to value something, change happens. 

Find some Dr. Dixie’s in your life!

7. Cultivate a Network.  

If you have a network of individuals who use their brains, feelings, intuition and talents in positive ways, it rubs off. Build relationships with individuals who elevate you by example and who dare to tell you the truth. 

Whiners are downers. Individuals who find a way are inspiring, fun and challenge you to continuously "pick up your game." If your organization is unable to appreciate winners, find one that does.

8. Develop constructive methods to complain.  

Constructive complaining is not focused on self, but on purpose—how increased cost or reduced quality, speed or volume result. 

For example, a secretary complained that she had not learned anything in a year. Whose fault is that? 

Constructive complaining focuses on facts that lessen the likelihood of doing a better job. 

For instance, a group of front liners are documenting how strategy changes create re-work and cause poor quality production. The skills to educate others to new possibilities are encouraged and nurtured by top organizations. Gathering objective facts and presenting them in a way others listen keeps you focused on the cheese. 

If peers, subordinates and higher ups are unaware of the magnitude that unproductive behaviors, sequencing or poor support creates, educate them in a productive manner. Of course, that means management has to listen.

9. Listen to understand.  

In a teambuilding session with a group who had been merged within a large banking organization, one individual was considered a "hot-head." The session surfaced legitimate frustrations that caused his temper to flare. People who care get frustrated. 

Fifteen individuals committed to a plan that changed the source of that frustration within ninety days and eight months later changed the corporate policy that created the disconnect with the customer in the first place. 

Unfortunately, that’s light years speed in large corporations. 

The organizations that develop responsive people with the gumption and commitment to execute will be the market leaders of the future. Can you execute when opportunity or problems occur quickly and effectively?

10. Respond decisively and quickly.  

I’m currently working with several brilliant individuals all of whom have very different talents. The head of the group is in the right place. He listens to understand, won’t tolerate whining and fuzzy thinking, and praises when it’s deserved. However, the most important thing he does is follow-through decisively—with an amazing number of balls in the air. He’s tough, but fair. Again, another individual who helps you "pick up your game" because he exemplifies results-oriented leadership—he’s focused on the cheese.

Individuals, who use objective facts, have a sense of purpose, offer constructive opinions and risk losing approval of others, will be the leaders of the future. 

Humor helps too! 

Are you educating yourself to better accept that change happens? Believing somebody moved your cheese is an excuse. 

Nobody moves your cheese; you lose sight of it! What’s really important to you? That’s your cheese! Get your cheese together. 

Develop a personal vision that keeps you moving forward.

Accept responsibility to not become a victim. Yes, individuals do have various difficulties; those difficulties are not your fault, but they are your problem or opportunity. 

Exercise choice. Hone daily adaptive and creative responses to people, events and situations—stay focused on your cheese!

Do you have a great cheese story? 

Email Janice at janicescanlan@earthlink.net

Next month we'll have an article on how to get your employees focused on the cheese.

Janice Scanlan helps organizations and individuals develop better, more productive responses to change. If you'd like to improve your ability or your employees' abilities to better respond to change, contact Janice at 281-261-2320 or email her at janicescanlan@earthlink.net.

Acknowledgements:

If you'd like to learn more about Dr. Dixie and The Rose, give yourself a minute to feel good. Go visit The Rose at  www.The-Rose.org. The Rose is a community-based organization that's an example of what people can achieve when they see barriers as challenges.

We'd like to thank The Boeri sports equipment people for supplying our furry little friend. These people knew what they were doing with this promotion called Extreme Sports: Use Your Head. Thanks to Roger C. Williamson, MPH Associates, Inc.--  Boeri Sport USA. Nice website www.boeriusa.com

Simple and sincere books are available that depict individuals at their best during change. One such book is a set of nice stories regarding how change is what we make of it. The stories illustrate individuals proactively responding to change. It is written for all audience levels. The Magic of Change  by Tom Britton and Kent Cummins is available at www.brittonspeaks.com

Moving On: How adaptable are you?

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