Have you ever had that moment of excitement when someone approaches you with a process problem and asks for your help? (Am I that much of a nerd to get excited by that?) You say to them “do you have data?” and to your surprise they “yes, I do.” By itself, that answer can send my heart all aflutter. People WITH data excite me! It is far better than people with just a hunch and who haven’t gone any further.
The conversation around whatever the potential issue is continues for a while. It finally ends with “send me the data so I can take a look at it.” “Sure, I’ll get it to you tomorrow,“ is the reply.
Tomorrow comes and goes. The week comes and goes. So does the month. No data. The barrier for entry to getting assistance is so low, just send an email and attach the data (excel workbook, CSV file, SQL query to get at the data, etc.) and you could get some input. Why does the email never come?
This is what someone who is not serious about change looks like. Tachii Ohno and his disciples set a much higher bar as test of seriousness. When they’d show up in a factory, once you had been persistent enough to actually get them to show up, they’d insist you change some things right then and there. If you balked, presumably they were gone.
When someone approaches you for help, and you do all the work for them (like getting their data or holding their root cause meetings for them, or whatever), there is no hurdle for entry, no minimal test of seriousness. As the expert, you are hand holding them through even getting started. Where’s the desperation to change if you do that? Where’s the seriousness that indicates they really want help?
Declining to help may be a critical first step to really helping someone. Until they reach the point that they want change so badly that they’ll come back after being rebuffed, you know you have someone serious about changing. You must set some barrier to entry. If you will gleefully charge into any battle of attrition on anyone’s behalf, the only person who is going to get worn down and killed is you.
Posted on April 18, 2010
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