WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD, how much time elapsed on a drive before you sang out that irrepressible car refrain,“Are we there yet?” You and your parents obviously had a different sense of how long the journey would take.

“Are we there yet?” is frequently asked in the workplace, too, maintain authors Josh Hammond and James Morrison. When people ask,“Is the report done yet?” “Hasn’t someone been hired yet for that new position” or “How far have we got with implementing the new programme?”, they are just paraphrasing and applying that old “Are we there yet?” question to different “theres.

”If we’re not there yet, then how much time should elapse before things change? People at work may differ greatly in their sense of how much time a new ventureshould take.

Answer for yourself this question that Hammond and Morrison asked a cross-section of people:

“When you think about making changes in your personal life or work life, would you consider yourself a gradualist (you believe change should come about slowly, through a gradual process) or a suddenist (you believe change should come about quickly, through a sudden process)?

”Next, predict which option a majority of people chose.

Hammond and Morrison found that most people, 55 per cent in fact, identify themselves as gradualists.

But they were dubious, so the next time they asked:

“Based on your experience, in your personal/business life, how much time does a change take?“

Check one of these answers:

□ a few minutes

□ a few months

□ a few hours

□ a few years

□ a few days

□ several years

□ a few weeks

“Again, answer this question your-self and then estimate how most people answered it.

“It turns out that a majority of people say “a few months” or less, regardless of whether they see themselves as gradualists or suddenists,” report Hammond and Morrison. “In fact, one in every five people who say they favour a ‘gradual’ process for change define that as a ‘few weeks’ or less! As you might imagine, gradualists see suddenists as impulsive, and suddenists quickly become exasperated with gradualists at work.

SOURCENOTE: Josh Hammond and James Morrison,
A New Framework for Quality, Productivity, and Profitability