In life, we have something called a “Continuation Bias” where once we start down a path, we like to continue down that path. This makes “Change” very uncomfortable for many people. In fact, we often look for reasons to hate, resist or fight change. On one day back in 2001, I had my comfort-zone tested, but it turned out to change the way I think about change for the rest of my life.
My Story:
It was around September 2001 and I was leading a group of Engineers at Gearworks. We were a younger company, but we had survived (sort of) the dot-com bubble bursting and we needed to execute with near perfect efficiency to survive from that point on. A colleague of mine was pushing for us to switch up our development process. I had been trained in classical Rational Unified Processes and the new movement of eXtreme Programming as part of the Agile processes was getting some very positive press. I was traveling at the time and our VP of Operations interviewed some consultants to help us with the change. — We all agreed to move forward.
Yeah, I said I was traveling at the time and I never interviewed the consultants that we were going to use… Regardless, the day they were going to work with us was upon us and like any morning, pulled into the office not aware of the crazy day I was going to have ahead. At about 9AM, I remember walking towards our lobby. We had an incredible building right in Eagan, MN. We converted a warehouse space into our office and it was high-tech by any standard. Glass walls, crazy carpet designs, exposed ceilings, raw materials of building everywhere — the space was admittedly gorgeous which set the stage for what happened next.
David Hussman, who I am now proud to call a mentor and a friend walked into the office as I was up front. Back at that time, David was already embracing the full “dude” personae. He had long hair and a hippie look about him, and as he walked in, he was overcome by the beauty of our space. — To say we looked completely different would undersell the dichotomy. He yelled, “WHAT!?!?!” as he walked in the door followed by, “AWWWWWEEESOMMMEEEE!!!” — I think he let out a few “This is amazing-s” and some other choice phrases as well. I remember looking up and thinking, “Dear God… this is how I lose my job? I bring in some whacko of a consultant for a process that is never going to work to transform our business?”
What transpired for the first hour was pretty hard for me to describe. –David continued his enthusiasm with some serious joy that can only be captured accurately by some of the “This is Awesome” scenes from “Tommy Boy”… and my discomfort was palpable. You could see me cringe with every discussion we had on process. A colleague of mine pulled me aside and said, “Let’s give it a try — We need to change something.” — I gritted my teeth and nodded… (Not to mention we already signed their contract so what else could I really do?).
The days went on, and I saw the culture of the team change, the process improve and despite some issues, the move to eXtreme Programming was a success for us. We kept refining our process, constantly making changes and at the end of the journey, we created a highly functional engineering team using the latest processes to massively improve our productivity.
At the end of the engagement, I was truly saddened to say goodbye to David. When I first met him, I was afraid of change. — I didn’t want to challenge process and just go with what I knew. After he worked with us (might be “worked us over”) for some time, I came to appreciate that change is good. — We shouldn’t be afraid to change things, experiment, and try new things. We should never judge a book by its cover… and we should never think the way we do things is the right way. We can always improve.
How I Practice it Today:
As humans, our “Continuation Bias” is a real threat to advancement and success. Ensuring you shed your continuation bias is something I believe is important. We have to be willing to accept or experiment with change and we can’t be afraid from walking away from something you have been doing. On a side note, I see this as a serious issue — today, we head down a path and we’re so sure that the path is right, even when we realize it may be wrong we spend more effort fixing what is broken versus changing direction and doing what is right. My gift today, don’t over-embrace your continuation bias and always be willing to experiment and change. While what you are doing today might work, there are likely ways things can work better.
On a side note, today’s story had a profound impact on my life and my leadership styles. I was honored to work with David Hussman early in my career and I’m honored to not only call him a great mentor of mine, but also a tremendous friend. David has gone on to be a recognized leader across many product disciplines and is a regular speaker around the globe. He’s single-handedly led a revolution of thought in product development, design, and execution. On behalf of all of us in the Minnesota technology community, and around the globe, thank you David for the gift you’ve given us all — The world is forever grateful for your contributions.
A Gift from your Father 