Escape from the Red Zone

Daigneau simply installed his own system on top of the existing one, like new software in the trial stages. Now he's creating written products: the maintenance record of equipment in the operating room, the repairs performed on the electrical system, the elevator inspection record. It's still a battle, but he's using Naylor and Crittenden's tools on a consistent basis within his own group. "The problem with the state system is that it was impossible not to focus on shortfall," he explains. "The bigger problem with implementing this stuff is that nobody believes you can do it without losing control. In a way, that's true. You do lose control. But you get greater results."

Halfway though the second day of the Houston seminar, the conference room feels electrified, the light seems softer and brighter, as if there's a completely different sort of energy in the room. Everyone's listening with interest, coming up with appropriate responses.

"You aren't dealing with rational processes in the workplace," Crittenden says. "You can't just increase the positive in terms of what you say to people. It can't be done inside the mind. The Red Box will win. We've got to get what we call validation out into the physical universe. On paper."

Daigneau stands up: "If I see a physical record of what I have accomplished, there's physical evidence that I can get things done that I can't deny. That physical evidence has a real impact."

They talk about short-term tools for handling the discord that arises when people start to use the system -- the rise in resistance they'll experience as it gets implemented. Everyone's taking notes. Naylor leans over, just before he gets up for his turn to speak again and says: "It's never been like this. These people are totally in synch with this."

Naylor talks about the need to clarify the meaning of simple, common words: "Don't even use the word 'goal.' It's totally muddled. It means so many things, it's so connected with failure, it's become unusable. We do appropriate, ethical design. We produce ethically. And we validate. It's as simple as that. The irony is, to get more satisfaction and fulfillment, we have to go through more difficulty. It involves pain. Isn't it difficult to confront these issues? Wasn't it hard yesterday? Somebody once said we all want to get to the Promised Land but nobody wants to cross the desert in between."

The seminar is coming to a close.

Naylor says to the group: "People are tired of getting beaten up. People are tired of autocratic control and negating styles: What's happening to the people side of the business? What are the best workers doing?"

"Building products for somebody else," someone says.

"That's right. The good ones are saying, 'I don't need this anymore. I'll become an Amway distributor, babe.' The pursuit of the Almighty Dollar isn't worth it. It's the best people who are leaving. The worst don't leave because they fear failure. They stay, and they get even. It's called NIGYYSOB: Now I've Got You You Son of a Bitch. It's called poor quality. It's called cost overrun. It's called absenteeism."

Naylor pauses, then continues: "Why do we give advice? Why do you take it? Because we don't believe, deep down, that we can come up with the answer. Why are managers happy to give advice?"

"So they can control you," someone says.

"Somebody inside us knows it won't work. We're devastating ourselves and others. The problem is, people don't want to be responsible. But when you give advice, who now has the responsibility? Anyone here ever heard of empowerment? If you do this over a period of time -- design and validation -- people will be transformed."

When the seminar concludes, Daigneau comes over and gives Naylor a quick hug. Naylor looks shocked. This never happens.

"If I'd planned it all out, it couldn't have worked any better," Daigneau says.

Lauren's back at the same restaurant, but it's a few months later. She's applied some of Naylor and Crittenden's principles to her job at the bank. And the dark glasses are gone.

"My life has gotten less chaotic," she says. "I'm not a To Do machine as much. I'm designing what we do, I produce it, and I validate it. My productivity has shot up. Things are coming more naturally for us."

She started designing outcomes for staff meetings. Working with her staff, they created a clear description of the product they want from their meetings, and they listed in advance all the characteristics of the meetings. She says the meetings are much more effective now and a lot shorter.

"I really do care about the people who work for me: I want them to get something out of their jobs. I don't want to use them. I want something beyond the paycheck to be there," she says. "We're heading more in that direction. Yet it hasn't changed everything. Some things may never change."