Small Changes Make the Biggest Differences

Have you ever tried quitting cold turkey?  Did it work?  Hardly, I think.

Some people believe that the only way to achieve the results that they want is to do something big or drastic.  Maybe to some that is true, but I think to many people it may be overwhelming and so they may end up not doing anything at all.

I think small changes are easier to achieve.  And when I achieve something, no matter how small, it makes me feel good.  It increases my self-esteem and confidence to try to make more changes to keep improving myself or get closer to my objective.  I think this is also true with many other people.

When managers apply this principle in managing people they set small goals for beginners.  Then as the initial goals are achieved, the next goals are set up a little higher than would normally be expected.  It is called stretched goals and the process of adding up a little bit more to the goal every time continues from one goal to another.  This often results in an individual undergoing change attaining higher performance and productivity.  This effect can become cumulative.  It encourages the individual to assume more responsibility and so creates in him or her greater opportunities for achievement, growth and development.

Every small change made becomes a bigger one later because of compounding.  This could be illustrated by the compounding interest of a bank deposit.  Let us assume that the interest rate for money deposited in a bank is ten percent annually.  A P1,000 that has been kept in the bank for a year would be P1,100 at the end of the year.  By the end of the second year, assuming that the money was not withdrawn, the amount would be P1,210.  On the third year the amount would be P1,331.  The amount earned as the years go by accelerates and by the eight year the deposit would have doubled in size.

Let me tell you the story that will illustrate further how some small changes make the biggest differences.   Mauricio Estrella¹ was one depressed person due to his recent divorce. Then one day, not long after his divorce, the message on his computer screen read:  “Your password has expired.  Click ‘Change password’ to change your password.”  

As the story goes, what annoyed him was the fact that the change calls for the use of at least “one UPPERCASE character, at least one lowercase alphabetic character, at least one symbol, at least one number and it can’t be less than 8 characters.” And he can’t use the same password he had used in the past.

According to his story, he was furious because he was late going to work that day and had to finish a lot of other work before the 10:00 am meeting and he thought that the message in front of him was requiring unnecessary work and a huge waste of his time. 

And it will be a password that he has to re-enter many times a day every day.

He said that as he let go of his frustration he remembered someone who used his password to remind himself of things that has to be done.  He thought he could use a variation of the same idea and use his password to remind himself of what he needs to do to take control of his life again. He wrote in his article, “My password became the indicator. My password reminded me that I shouldn’t let myself be a victim of my recent break up…”

His new password:  “Forgive@h3r”

That small change has shifted the attitude of Mauricio and led him to accept the way things happened to his marriage and led him to a new way of dealing with his depression.  That small change encouraged him to make other changes in the way he lived so that every time he was asked to change his password he typed in something that he wanted to have or achieve in his life. 

Mauricio’s story is a good example of how small changes make the biggest differences. As the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

There are also some small changes that make significant negative results.

It was Thursday, 14 August 2003.  It was a hot day in the Northeastern and Midwestern part of the United States².  The hot temperature increased energy demand as people turned on their air conditioning. This caused the power lines to sag as higher currents heated the lines.  After a while, a generating plant in a distant rural setting went offline amid high electrical demand.  As the story went, their power lines heated, it sagged and came in contact with "overgrown trees" putting a strain on high-voltage power lines which later on tripped to prevent damage.

This trip caused load to transfer to other transmission lines but the other transmission lines were not able to bear the load, tripping their relays. The cascading effect resulted ultimately to a forced the shutdown of more than 100 power plants causing a blackout in the Northeastern and Midwestern part of the United States.

In February 2004, when the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force released their final report, one of their findings was the failure "to manage adequately tree growth in its transmission rights-of-way."

A tree somewhere in the suburbs was growing underneath the power line.  It was a small oversight that a small tree could be growing. That small oversight brought a big portion of the United States into a standstill.

A seemingly inconsequential event or action can have drastic and long-term effect.  Consider the following situation:

a. A short-term budget cut, especially in RND or advertising, could have long-term consequences in terms of the organization’s competitiveness.

               b. A spark or a carelessly thrown cigarette butt can cause a forest fire that could burn for days and affect neighboring countries. 

               c. A rolling snowball on a slope filled with snow can cause an avalanche.

               d. A neutron can create a chain reaction that leads to an explosion. 

e. A minor car accident during the rush hours can cause traffic jams that angers drivers, creates frustrations, triggers road rage, results into more accidents and other unintended results.  (Some of the unintended result of traffic jams could be the growth of telecommuting, flexible working hours and online shopping.)

   

In a highly networked system, like we have today, a small change can make significant negative results. The collapse of the Thai Baht in 1997³ is a good example.  It led to a wave of currency depreciation and stock market declines in Asia resulting into widespread bankruptcies in the region.

The Thai economy was doing very well up into the early 90s.  By the middle of the 90s the Yuan and Yen devalued, China’s economy grew and started competing with Thailand exports, the US raised interest rates strengthening the US dollar, and the price of semiconductor dropped thereby slashing Thailand overseas earnings.  As a result, more and more people wanted to sell Baht to buy US dollars.

The report said that “The reason this was a collapse rather than a slow decline was that the Thai government wouldn´t allow the exchange rates to change - they had pegged the Baht to the US dollar, and it was only to buy and sell at that rate.”

Because of that policy, the Thai government used up its reserves of foreign currencies to try to manipulate the market but it did not have enough reserves to meet the needs of the sellers. “They were forced to remove the peg.... and the currency immediately crashed as the fact that the exchange rate had been held artificially high for months became apparent.”

The crash of the Thai Baht rippled through the Asian region.  It created a lot of bankruptcies and affected the region in a big way.

This brings to mind the often quoted butterfly effect⁴:  “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?” It means a small change in a complex system could have large but unpredictable results elsewhere.  However, the theory also suggests that certain conditions must exist to amplify the change. I think in the case of the Asian economic crisis in 1997, the economic imbalances in each of the country were the condition that amplified the crash of the Thai Baht.

So, there are no excuses. 

Whatever it is that you want in life, you can start right now by the taking the first few and little steps. Maybe you would like to start with your career.  You can go to the office a little bit earlier.  It is one way to beat the traffic and reach your destination much faster than usual.  That will save you some time.  It will give you some extra time to read materials that had been waiting to be read but never had the time to do so.  And as you continue to read, the knowledge gained in earlier reading could give you better understanding on materials read later.  Your knowledge about certain topics accumulates.  And because of your accumulated knowledge you could become a more useful source of information for your peers and your subordinates and a valuable contributor to the achievement of the goals of your organization.

Consequently, having changed the time in going to the office you would have also felt a sense of control in making change.  This could encourage you to make other small changes in the way you work and live.   And before you know it, your life and career would have tremendously improved.

Do it.

References:

1. “How a Password Changed My Life”; The Lighthouse, Mauricio Estrella,

May 15, 2014

2. “Northeast Blackout of 2003”, Wikipedia

3. “Why Did the Baht Collapse in the Summer of 1997?” Mark Harrison

4. “Butterfly Effect”, Wikipedia

The Value of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

The Value of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

By Jun Salipsip

Business issues today had become more complex that is why companies require more innovative solutions to customer’s changing taste, more accurate sales forecast in unpredictable times, appropriate production capacity to serve fluctuating demand, lower inventory costs in spite of rising prices, financing growth without incurring heavy debt, etc.  

But because of the complexity of the issues today, an individual employee does not have all the answers or knowledge about all the current and emerging industry trends, creeping social changes, changing technology that has been overrunning rigid political systems, unpredictable local economic cycles influenced by developments from other parts of the world, and multiplying competition that is not only direct and indirect but also replacement or substitute competition.  

Each employee needs to work closely together to become more effective and efficient in understanding the impact of new trends and in dealing with complex problems as they operate in turbulent times, volatile situations and exponential growth in innovations.  Workers are becoming increasingly more interdependent so that they could deliver innovative solutions required by the diverse interest of the market and other stakeholders.

In addition, employees need new learning in view of accelerating changes due to exploding development in technology, agility and quicker response due to deregulation and the increasing competition, and skilled handling of complex solution due to growing customer sophistication because of their access to knowledge about their choices.

How could all of these be achieved in organizations that have been growing more diverse?

In a diverse organization, employees think, feel, and act differently.  Some employees learn by gathering more facts before trying out anything while others prefer to try and learn as they go.  Some employees are more willing to act fast (risk taker) while others prefer to take it slow and easy (risk averse).   Some employees feel it is good to listen while others feel it is a waste of time and prefer to ignore others’ point of view.  And since employees like most people are creatures of habit, each tends to act consistently in the way that is comfortable to them.  But in doing so, it makes others who are different feel uncomfortable, thus creating unproductive tension in the organization.

In such an environment work is difficult.   

At one extreme, confrontation can be the way things get done and the results achieved could be at the expense of others.  It is easy to have misunderstanding and conflict which could be very stressful.  Under such situation it is easy to have a lot of bucket dumping that leads to more unproductive behavior.

At another extreme, people may try to be nice, try to get along and cooperate, and disagreement is avoided at all cost.  But outcomes are often a compromise between competing interests and improvements, if any, could only be incremental.

Between the two extremes, people could collaborate to achieve shared goals by spending some time understanding individual differences in terms of intentions, motivations, and desires.  The capacity for understanding others and oneself and for learning how to react to others in a productive way is what some people call emotional intelligence and the knowledge gained in such an undertaking could be very helpful in achieving breakthroughs and avoid breakdowns in work.

How could that be done?  To begin, we need to be less judgmental because it is so easy for us to decide that someone is quiet or loud; aggressive or passive.  Once we have made such a decision, we start seeking confirmation of our judgment and begin relating to that person as though the judgment we have just made is true.   Generally, a person who is not like us makes us uncomfortable and is judged negatively.  People who are similar to us make us comfortable and are judged positively.

For example:  

-There are some people who want to act fast, get results for the work that they do and need to be in control to get things done.  These people would like others to get to the point because they are irritated by inefficiency and indecision¹.

-There are some people who want to do a lot of different things spontaneously, get recognized for them, and need to be at the center of things.  These people would like others to be as enthusiastic and as energetic as they are in pursuing multiple projects.  They are the big picture guy and couldn’t be bothered with details and would like others to be the same.

-There are some people who want a methodical predictable routine, achieve deadlines in the work that they do, and need clear direction.  These people would like others to be as well prepared, logical, thorough and detailed in their communication. 

-There are some people who want a slower pace, get approval from people and take time to gain consensus, and need to feel included.  These people would like an atmosphere that encourages close relationships, easy pace of work, and assurance of support.

Obviously, people who want to act fast would have difficulty with people who want a more leisurely pace.  And people who want details would find it hard to deal with people who would not be bothered with minutiae.  The more diverse an organization, the greater is the potential for conflict and breakdown in communication and work.

Each of the above groupings would like certain ways by which others interact and communicate with them.  And those who adapt to their style, they find easier to work with and those who don’t, they find more difficult to work with.   And if possible, each group would prefer to select the people they would work with.  

But what is the reality?  

Can people always select the people they would like to work with?  Obviously the answer is no.  That being the case, people need to learn how to relate to each other by accepting the differences between people and accepting that people are not difficult just because they are different.  With acceptance of the differences, an awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of each group should come and the realization that the weakness of one group could be the strength of the other should help each group in being more open and non-judgmental.   As a result of this awareness, there should be more willingness to temporarily modify behaviors when dealing with each other to fit each other’s needs when interacting, because if each group consistently operate from their own comfort zone, they run the risk of making each other uncomfortable.

And as the saying goes, different strokes for different folks - we need to approach people according to their intentions, motivations, and needs.

The purpose of adapting to people whose styles are different is to minimize the relationship tension.  This is important because relationship tension in an organization reduces productivity in the company.  This concept of adapting to the behaviors of other persons in order to meet their needs and make them feel comfortable is called versatility².

What are the characteristics of people perceived to be highly versatile?

People who are versatile tries to meet the needs of others, acknowledges other ways to do things, gets things done through effective relationships, is aware of individual differences, and looks for ways to develop a comfortable working relationship.

To be versatile, first, one must have knowledge of individual differences.  It means knowing how to recognize styles – one’s own and others – in order to be able to develop a strategy to interrelate with others.  Second, one must have knowledge of the expectations of other people.  It means being able to identify the specific needs of a particular style, once that style is identified.

Since emotional intelligence is the capacity to understand one self and others and how one’s behavior impacts others, individuals would become more careful in navigating interpersonal differences.  Learning to react to others in a way that empathizes and meets the needs of others would result in reduced arguments and conflict.  Without awareness we automatically react based on our comfort zone but with awareness we are able to pause and consider our feelings and the feelings of others and manage the choices that we have in reacting to the situation.  

With emotional intelligence one is able to build better relationship.  It will result into a healthier working environment that will surely reduce turnover and absenteeism.  Employees would have stronger relationship with their supervisors, their peers, and their subordinates that will be based on trust.  And it will be much easier to build sustained engagement in pursuing the goals of the organization and help manage change effectively.

Emotional intelligence is a skill that is quite important in preventing breakdowns in company operations and in having the potential to achieve breakthroughs in work.

Recently, I attended an Enderun Colleges Success Series Talk with the new CEO of CITI Bank Philippines, Mr. Batara Sianturi.  He talked about the challenges faced by the management and the leadership of an organization and in the process of his presentation he mentioned IQ and EQ in the workplace.  He differentiated IQ as the measure of general intelligence and EQ as the measure of emotional intelligence.  

He said, “In today’s workforce, success is more dependent on your EQ.”  He explained that it is a leadership skill or trait that enhances collaboration and performance that result into higher productivity.

And to conclude his talk, he further represented IQ as one’s aptitude and EQ as one’s attitude and he said, “Your attitude, not so much your aptitude, will determine your altitude in the organization.”

References

1.       Trigon Systems Consultant (http://www.softed.com/resources/docs/ssw0.4.pdf)

2.       Wilson Learning (http://www.wilsonlearning.com/wlw/products/brv)