Change on riding an elephant

 

When I was 21 and had the incredible opportunity to go on a Semester at Sea, a floating university that went around the world, I rode an elephant. I can hardly say that I went anywhere, but I did get up on its back and try to fling my legs over the large back. I felt the coarse and hairy skin against my legs. I screamed my young girl piercing voice as the elephant obeyed his command and started to lift off from his kneeling position. I was with my dear friend Archie Clark and it was a wild moment of precariousness as the elephant took a few steps swaying back and forth.

I heard Stanford law professor Chris Heath talk about how embracing change is like a person trying to ride an elephant. He described the rider being like our analytical mind that also wants to chart the course and know where we are going and how we are going to get there.

The elephant represents the emotions, the heart and the things that need to be motivated for us to change. The elephant is not going to move just because the rider tells him to. The elephant has to want to move and is driven by his heart and passion for the cause.

How to bring these two together is the ultimate question. Having had the actual experience of riding the elephant, I can say that this is the real and monumental image. Heath is proposing the following when you know that you want to elicit change.

1)    Direct the rider

2)    Motivate the elephant

3)    Shape the Path

Shaping the path is creating an easy environment for change to happen. This is paving the way to create the kind of easy change that we would like to have. It is not easy to get our fellow staff members or clients or Board Members to want to elicit the same changes that we think and feel are necessary. But if we take time to give the rider clear directions, find ways to motivate the elephant from the heart and to create an easy, safe path on the change road, we will ensure success.