The “Rule of Thirds” (not to be confused with a tool of the same name that’s focused on composition in artwork or photography) is a great tool to predict and test the effects of the status quo bias on any group in the midst of evaluating a proposed change. While it represents an obvious “generalization” (no group fits exactly into thirds), I have learned to assume that any group will move into thirds when I propose just about any change – from as trivial as changing the start time of a meeting to shifts in overall organizational culture.
JUMP! Rule of Thirds Tool Template
There are two vital insights related to the Rule of Thirds. First, most managers tend to immediately try to stop the squeaky wheels in the “I’m feeling negative” section. While addressing the resistors is needed at some point, the wrong thing to do is to give them attention right away. Let them resist and complain for a bit while you focus instead on giving those that are neutral a reason or reasons to feel positive. By doing that, you’ll align about 2/3rds of the group BEFORE you start addressing the nay-sayers.
Then… There’s the 10% of the group that, again – generally, will never move. Sometimes the right thing to do is to move on with out them. Find a way to change their minds, or get them out of the group. However, in some rare cases, this group is not just resistant to change because they don’t “want” to change… Sometimes they have valid, critical reasons for not moving that need to be heard. Remember the Challenger disaster? There was a small group of engineers who refused to go along with a change because they were convinced the “O-rings” on the solid rocket boosters were prone to fail. Guess what, these engineers were right.
