The Value of Spotting Weeds
If you are anything like me, your default reaction when finding a rogue weed popping up in your lawn or garden is frustration at the never-ending cycle of their disruption to your beautiful plans. This frustration tends to elicit one of two reactions:
I go on a vigilante-style tirade trying to strike down and pull out every weed before it appears, often to the detriment and delinquency of caring for the actual garden. I get so caught up in the search for the bad that the good being produced is overlooked and cannot be enjoyed or tended to by anyone else.
Throw in the towel, let the weeds run their course, and then eventually try my hand at “starting over”. There may have be one or two flowers that survive among the intruders, but it is hard to quantify or qualify it as progress.
The reality is that we should not be surprised when weeds try to establish themselves in freshly mowed lawns or recently tilled gardens: the conditions are great for anything to pop up. The challenge is how to maintain proper care of the intended output from the space while addressing the issues that arrive in the proper time and manner to maintain stability and growth.
I have seen this play out in organizations that are working through change as well. The initial “mow” is usually pretty exciting: yes it takes some great effort to prepare and execute the delivery, but by laying out a picture of the future people can get a taste for and appreciate the idea of a well-maintained culture and direction. The work really begins though when weeds start to sprout up in that freshly manicured lawn.
As a leader, it is true that these infectious plants need to be addressed, but how you do it is just as important. If you attack only the weeds when they sprout, you will be chasing the bad that you may neglect to re-mow the lawn itself, allowing atrophy to thwart progress. It is as important to maintain the standard of a tended to landscape for the people of the organization to grow comfortable with that as the expectation. If you mow the lawn regularly, that is repeating your cultural or directional priorities and working on them, that becomes the expected standard. As that happens, you are naturally investing in other gardeners who will be able to spot weeds as they first germinate and work to eliminate them on their own. That, ultimately is what will establish organizational change, a group effort that the team buys into and works to maintain together.
The next time you spot a “weed” sprouting up among your team, take a moment to appreciate that it was easy to spot. That means there is progress. Those weeds used to be the standard and all anyone was used to. he work that you have put in to make change has actually led to some progress.
Let the weed rise for a short bit to see if any other gardeners come along to pull it up by the roots. Use the time you could spend addressing one weed to attend to the whole garden by watering the change you want to see. Focus your energy and efforts on maintaining a healthy lawn that people grow to enjoy and want to unify around keeping tidy and go on weed hunts when they go unaddressed and before they spread to other areas.
