Dear J-
Our fearless leader at work here said upon his introduction that there’s three kinds of folks: the CAVE people, fence sitters, and the supporters. The supporters are going to follow you around no matter what direction you take (maybe 10% of the folks); CAVE people stands for “Citizens Against Virtually Everything” and, as the name implies, will dig their heels in for everything you do (figure 5%); and the remainder, fence-sitters, aren’t going to be the first to change, but they’ll evaluate their options carefully and once you can convince them, they’ll fall in.
The upshot was that it was a double waste of your time trying to convince the CAVE people to change: first, because they’re unlikely to, and second, they aren’t inclined to listen to you anyway. I’m beginning to understand that truth; the folks coming up to me at work bragging how they get around the system and training don’t seem to get it. If you’d just accepted the change and/or training to begin with, you wouldn’t have to think of all these clever tricks to begin with; you’ve wasted effort and you expect me to be proud of that?
Today I gave my second lesson on how to do our job in the new system; I know it has to have been the fourth time I or others have gone over the same information with the same people. Yet it’s only now, with the threat of weekend work (and that’s where I’ll be on Sunday) that people have actually started paying attention. One benefit is that we can supposedly work from home — all of the software can be converted to work via the web. All I really want is a few hours of uninterrupted production; I love being able to help, but it’s gotten to the point where I can’t even string together five minutes of a single thought lately.
Mike
Tags: cave people, change, fearless leader, fence sitters, lesson, supporters, work
