282. How the United States Failed To Change And What You Can Learn From It

There is a 63-mile stretch of Interstate 19 outside Tucson, Arizona that is unique for one reason:

It is the only road in the United States which uses the metric system.

Instead of displaying miles from the next exit, the signs are in kilometers. Instead of miles-per-hour for speed limits, the signs show kilometers-per-hour.

You didn’t know that, didja?
Don’t worry, I didn’t either.

Here’s another interesting stat:

Of the 193 countries in the world, every one of them uses the metric system for measurements, except one: the United States.

(This may be worse than that whole “maternity leave” fiasco I wrote about here.)

With the metric system, it seems the US made an attempt but then failed to change. As it turns out, this is a fairly common mistake among leaders. But we’ll get to that in a second.

How The US Government Failed To Change

It turns out that way back in 1866, the US government declared the metric system to be the official measurement standard for commerce in the country.

Who knew.

In fact, we doubled down in 1975 with the Treaty of the Meter, which we signed along with Germany, Russia, and France. Besides being the most ridiculous excuse for a treaty, this document cemented the metric system as the official measurement system for trade and commerce in the US and the world.

Let me rephrase this to make it clearer for the people in the cheap seats.

According to our government, the metric system has been the US standard of measurement for 158 years, but nobody seems to know it or adhere to it.

The government tried to enact the metric system, starting with 63 random miles of tarmac outside Tucson. But in the end, they failed to change.

Heck, if you run a 5k or 10k race in the US – event distances defined by the metric system – your running splits will still be given in the imperial system (miles), not the metric system.

Nutty, right?

What’s even more wackadoodle is that the same type of behavior is playing out in lots of different companies – and probably even in yours.

 

The Teacher Who Failed To Change

In my executive coaching practice, I’ve come across hundreds of leaders who have failed to change. They’ve relied on the false belief that change will magically happen simply because they’ve declared it should.

But that’s not the way business works.
Or life.
Or measurement systems.

Simply because you build it, it does not mean they will come.
They won’t.
They’re happy where they are.

Imagine you were back in 6th grade. Let’s say your teacher walked into the classroom one day and declared “All of you students will be masters of algebra because you must know algebra to live in this world.”

After saying that, the teacher just sat down at her desk and began quietly knitting.

I think we can both agree that your teacher in that scenario would have failed to teach. Kids wouldn’t struggle to learn algebra on their own simply because the teacher said so. You and your classmates would’ve undoubtedly remained confused about what should happen, how it should happen, and why you should even care when the teacher clearly doesn’t.

Also, your teacher would’ve probably been fired.

Yet business leaders repeat this same behavior everywhere, all the time.

Let me give you an exampleIt’s called the Waffle House Index

The Leader That Failed To Change

I often get hired to help companies transform their culture into ones of high productivity and rapid growth.

Recently I was brought in to do that with a $10m marketing agency.

The company had reached a revenue plateau and, with a host of global brands as clients, they needed to transform from a project-based vendor to a retainer-based strategic partner.

No problem. I’ve done this a boatload of times for a truckload of companies and could guide them through the process of change.

I spent a lot of time with the company assessing strategy and operations. I led the development of the mission, vision, and core values. I worked with the leadership team to create the path to success and put together the presentation to document the company’s transformation and roadmap.

The CEO was excited about the new direction and he seemed to be taking ownership of it. He led an all-hands meeting where he enthusiastically announced the rollout of the new direction, including the importance of the change and what it would mean to everybody going forward.

It seemed great. They were on track.
Another satisfied client. Yay.

All the CEO had to do was make sure the team executed the roadmap. He had proverbially paved 63 miles of highway and now it was time to empower his people to pave the rest of the path.

Then the wheels fell apart. Or, rather, the train lost its steam.

After all the work and the exciting roll-out… the CEO failed to change.

He suddenly didn’t seem to care. In fact, he even failed to adapt to the cultural changes himself.

He had told everybody the importance of making the changes and then, like the algebra teacher, he just sat knitting at his desk. Proverbially, of course.

He failed to change but expected others to embrace it.

He told some people they needed to adopt the behaviors while consciously letting others ignore them.

In the end, nothing changed.

When Accountability Matters

Just because you declare something true does not mean it will come true.

For 158 years the US government had declared the metric system the country’s standard of measurement. But without a clear plan, an ongoing commitment from leadership, and a modicum of accountability, we’ve failed to change.

Change is hard. It can also be divisive. Whatever the change, not everybody is guaranteed to like it.

That means that change has risk. And taking risks is scary.

Meaningful change requires more than just declarations or good intentions. It requires consistent action and a commitment to seeing it through.

Planning the road is easy, paving the road is where the real work occurs.

Ponder these two questions, if you will – and I hope you will, Will.

• What change have you expected to happen that has failed to happen?
• Have you or your boss declared a need for the team to change and then sat back hoping the team would tackle it on their own?

If you’ve ever experienced something like this, share it in the comments or drop me a note.

So the next time you’ve got a new initiative to implement, remember the tarmac on Interstate 19. Change isn’t just about putting up some signs, it’s about paving the path to success and consistently guiding people to the ultimate destination.

It’s time to take the change beyond Tucson.