One day Deer went to Chief Buffalo with a problem. “Chief Buffalo,” said Deer, “there is an important part of the forest that is so thick with brambles that it forces the deer into just a few paths. This makes it too easy for wolves to catch us. What can be done about this?”

Buffalo thought about this for a bit and said, “I am a creature of the open plains. While it is true that I am Chief of all the hooved animals, you, Deer, must act as a chief for the forest animals. Who among the forest animals is going to want to help you with your wolf problem? You should ask that animal for help. A Chief needs to be able to delegate.”

“That is a very good idea,” said Deer, excited at the prospect of being able to delegate this problem to someone else. “I will ask Rabbit. I’ve noticed that Rabbit spends a lot of time in the brambles, hiding from the wolves.”

The next day Deer went and spoke to Rabbit about the problem created by the brambles. Rabbit pointed out that one reason the paths through the brambles remain clear is because rabbits will eat the young vegetation that sprouts up along the path edges. However, to completely clear out the brambles would be a huge job and would require a lot more rabbits.

Deer went back to Chief Buffalo for more advice.

“I think that you need help in learning how to manage a project and how to delegate,” said Chief Buffalo. “It is important that you have a clear understanding of your values and what you wish to achieve.”

“That’s simple enough,” said Deer. “I want to get rid of those brambles.”

“I thought you said the problem was the wolves finding it too easy to catch you deer?” asked Buffalo.

“Oh, I see what you mean,” said Deer, who was becoming very excited at the idea of acting like a chief. “What else do I need to do to delegate this problem?

“After being clear about the problem, work with the other deer and rabbits to shape a shared vision of how this problem can be solved” said Buffalo. “You must inspire them to explore different ideas for solving the problem, and then decide on a plan.”

“That’s sounds great Buffalo!” said Deer. “I like the sound of having a plan. But how will I know if the plan’s working?”

“Once you all come up with your best plan, you need some way of measuring progress. If the plan isn’t working, then you have to change it. You’ll also need a system for getting feedback from the rabbits so you can adjust your plan as needed.”

Deer was again very excited by this information and enthusiastically went back to Rabbit.

“Rabbit,” said Deer, “I need all of these brambles cleared away.”

“Okay…” said Rabbit, “that’s a big job… Oh! Do you want all the brambles cleared or just the paths through the brambles made wider?”

“Picture this,” said Deer, “All of this area with no brambles in it so that the deer can run wherever they please.”

“That’s a big job. I’ll need a lot more rabbits to help,” said Rabbit. “Even then… we rabbits like to keep the paths clear by eating the young undergrowth… we rabbits kinda like the thicker brambles where we can hide.”

“Oh! I almost forgot,” said Deer, “Bring in all the rabbits you need, but we will need a plan for removing brambles and a way to measure progress.”

The brambles were an excellent habitat for the rabbits and before long there were many more rabbits chewing on the vines. The pathways through the brambles became wider and more clear and the deer could run faster.

However, as the rabbits chewed the vines and ate the berries, more seeds took root and the outer parts of the brambles grew faster than ever.

Deer thought that the plan might be going well, but just couldn’t tell for sure. He remembered Chief Buffalo’s talk about having to measure the plan’s progress.

Deer went and spoke with Rabbit. “It is important that you measure the progress at clearing the brambles. I need you to measure how many brambles are removed by your rabbits each day.”

Rabbit thought about that and said, “I can do that, but we will also need to measure how fast the brambles grow each day. Otherwise, how can I know how many rabbits are needed?”

The next day the rabbits were given the task of taking 10 minutes of every hour to measure how many brambles they had removed. Other rabbits were assigned to measure how much the brambles had grown each day.

It was hard to measure the changes in the brambles. The rabbits decided to report on how many rabbit body-lengths of brambles were eaten each day. Rabbits are very good at multiplying and developed a system for calculating how much each rabbit eats and how fast new brambles grow.

By now, Deer was getting a little frustrated. Deer was tired of hearing reports of how many vines had been chewed, how many vines had spread, the average eating capacity of a rabbit, how many seeds were spread by the rabbits, and all the other calculations. Deer decided that a group of deers would be formed to help Rabbit figure out how to best measure progress.

After many hours the group of deer decided that they would be called The Brambles Oversight Committee. They would develop standards for how to measure the rabbits’ progress. Many moons passed….

Rabbit was presented with the Progress Plan Report Standards that The Brambles Oversight Committee had developed. Rabbit soon realized that more rabbits would be needed to collate the data needed for this quarterly report.

The Brambles Oversight Committee reviewed these reports and realized that overall progress on removing the brambles was quite slow. Also, the data was confusing and difficult to properly understand. After many meetings they decided that they needed more data to understand this problem. They decided that they could be a more effective committee if they got monthly, instead of quarterly, progress reports.

Rabbit assigned more workers to preparing the now monthly progress reports.

With so many rabbits now living in the brambles, there were now more paths for the deer, making it easier for them to escape from wolves. However, there were now so many rabbits available that more and more wolves were being attracted to the area.

The Brambles Oversight Committee met and decided that they would create more standards for the rabbits to follow but that it wasn’t their role to address the larger problem of more wolves being attracted to the area around the brambles.

Deer agreed that a new committee would have to be formed….

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Questions for the readers:

Have you ever experienced a manager like Deer?

In what ways did Deer not really listen to Chief Buffalo?

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Follow up:

For an overview of The Single Most-Powerful Process in Business and How It Applies to Therapy, see The Strategic Change Compass – Part 2 of 3.

For an overview of how a traditional strategic change model becomes integrated into the Bear Clan Meta-Compass, see The Strategic Change Compass – Part 3 of 3.