Rider is more rational and elephant is more to do with emotional aspects of the change. Both needed to make the change, as rider presents analysis of the data and elephant provides the energy to execute the change. With analysis we can solve the problems, but not make the change until elephant is taken care. Elephant wants short term gains, its lazy and needs motivation to move forward. Think about if rider and elephant disagree, we get to a road block, well temporarily rider can get his way through authority but it does not last long. Most of the times actually elephant overpowers the rider and that is where I had a realization that "Self Control is exhaustive".
I liked the some of the example given in the book Jon Stegner - Glove Story, Dr Donald Berwick -IHI saving 100,000 lives in 18 months and Jerry Sternin who fought malnutrition in Vietnam without any major structural changes.
What Rider needs Direction - a Clarity - a goal or objective- what to be done.
Very often we look at the negative aspects of the problem or phenomena while solving , but we often forget that we need to look for the solution where problem started or figure out where are the bright spots and follow the bright spots. I relate this theory to our famous " ZAP the GAP", find the bright spots in terms of high performers and compare them with low performers and follow the high performers.
Its not just the objective and moves, we need to point rider to the destination and why we need to go there. Remember in our earlier change topics talked about the " Shared need" and buy-off required from stake holders.
In another article of Kotter and Cohen states that the change sequence is not Analyse - Think - Change, its is actually See - Feel - Change. Now tough part is actually motivating the elephant.....
People need to see what they do not see normally and they need to find the feeling, then change will be easy. For example a customer satisfaction scores at different centers, or Display of gloves purchased by different departments at different price points as in Glove Story. When change seems big, it also appears to the elephant that it is hard, unless otherwise you shrink the change to appeal to the elephant to make the critical small step.
Elephant needs lot of motivation, human psychology tells growing mind sets make change easier, what it means if you think "no matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially and you can always change basic things about the kind of person you are".
In business world we ignore or reject growth mind set, we always think Plan -Act, but can we insert two stages in between - Practice and Learn. Well time to go takes precedence rather than wait and learn approach. This is where, most of the product developers actually skips the tests before go to market. We know what kind of buggy products then we throw to our customers.
Its not all about Rider and Elephant behaviors, lot times tweaking the environment makes things easier for both. lot of times changing orientation of factory or Office can yield desired results. When situation changes, the behaviors also change , so focus on changing the situation.
When behavior is habitual, it's free and does not tax the rider. Building habits, requires identifying the vital behaviors and action triggers. Remember "Stop the Line" Concept in Toyota production example, where an employee habitually pulls the trigger when he sees the defect in manufacturing. Some times the visual management helps to create habits or divert to desired behavior.
 |
| Rider and Elephant in perfect sync |
