One of the biggest erros you
can make in an organization is to confuse the actions you take
with the reasons you have for taking those actions. They
are not always connected. Many times, in fact most
times, the same action may have many different reasons.
Never insist that others agree on the reasons for taking
actions if you agree on what you should do.
In an education research
project several researchers had very different explanations of
what was wrong with a particular school. One at a time
they made the changes that each 'expert' wanted tomake.
After a few years of deep frustration the 'experts' had all
had their say. Nothing had changed and they were no
closer to solving their problem.
Finally they decided to make
only the smallest changes in the situation that they could all
agree they should make. they decided that they didn't
care why anyone else wanted to make those changes as long as
they all agreed. The result of these convergent agendas
was an almost immediate positive change in the school and a
solution to their problem.
