The morning walk with the wife is a ritual I enjoy and quite look forward to. I recently bought myself an expensive new pair of sports shoes to fuel our endeavour. So, you can imagine my excitement as I set off for the walk in my newly acquired footwear the next day.
About 20 minutes into the walk though, one of my shoe laces came undone. And as I stopped to tie the laces, I didn’t think too much about it. But when it happened a second time, I sensed that there might be a problem with those rounded, smooth nylon laces in my new shoes. Have you faced a similar problem too at some time? Sounds familiar?
The shoe laces coming off soon became a regular, recurring phenomenon. The wife and I would be walking along, talking about the day gone by, and the day ahead, when I would discover that my laces have magically slipped and come undone. And I would find myself interrupting the flow of the conversation – and the walk – to tie my shoe laces.
I began to wonder why the Nike folks couldn’t provide better laces, given the high price they were charging. I even thought of writing to the CEO to share my predicament. Meanwhile, I could sense my wife’s irritation mounting too. As I sat there on the pavement, tying my laces yet again, I could bet she was thinking “Why couldn’t his parents teach him to tie his shoelaces right?”
Determined to set it right, and yet unsure of what I should do, I decided to do what all intellectually curious thinkers do when they aren’t sure. I Googled it. “How to tie shoe laces?” Bingo! Google quickly enlightened me that there are in fact two ways of tying a shoe lace. Very similar in technique, but very different in outcomes. As you make a loop out of one lace and hold it, and get the other lace around it, it makes a huge difference whether you bring the other lace from above the first loop – or from below it. Bring it from above and you have a weak knot. But take it from below – and you will have a knot that’s strong.
There is a weak knot. And a strong knot. And as it turned out, I had all along been tying the weak knot. Armed with this new-found knowledge – and the secretly acquired new technique, I began to tie my shoe laces the new way. And it worked.
No more interruptions in the walk. The laces stayed in place. And as a bonus I now had a delighted wife too, smiling with pride in the knowledge that at this ripe old age her husband had finally mastered an essential life skill. The shoe lace problem is thankfully out of the way now. But the lessons have remained. And maybe they are relevant for us all.
First, just because you have been doing something for years it does not mean you have been doing it right. Maybe there is a better way. You just need to be willing to learn. Second, when things go wrong, the temptation to blame others can be strong. Laces coming off? It must be Nike’s fault! It takes courage to introspect and say maybe, just maybe, the fault lies within. Own the problem, and you’ll empower yourself to find a solution. Third, change is hard. Doing things differently is harder than it seems. In business and in life, we all get used to a process, a pattern of work, habits get formed and that’s hard to change. Acknowledge that. Change takes effort. And time and commitment too.
And finally, it’s useful to remember that small changes can make a big impact. A simple thing like getting the lace from above the loop – or below it – can make a huge difference. It can keep your shoes on your feet. It can even bring a smile on your wife’s face!
Next time you are looking to drive a change initiative in your organisation, think of the shoe lace. Skip the blame game. Take ownership. Start small. See if there is a better way. Recognise that change is hard. And then, as the change kicks in, get ready for the appreciation.
Guest Author
Iyer is an author, speaker and leadership coach , and former MD of Kimberly Clark Lever
