Two Sticks: A Parable for New Leaders

So you just walked into a new role. It's your first day, and you want to make a good impression. Shake things up. Drive change. Make your mark. In short, you have just chosen a kind of suicide.

I am not usually one to preach by parables, but this is the story I tell any new hire who joins a company. I also tell it to new leaders, and to companies that bring me in to change how the work gets done.

There was a man who went to a village some years back. He wanted to bring change — better irrigation, medicines, and a bit of technology that would make their lives better. When he arrived, the locals greeted him with open arms. They offered him food and shelter and often spoke to him kindly and openly. On his first night, he came to dinner and watched as one of the village men gathered small sticks and hay into a pile and placed a block of wood on the ground in the middle of it. With a handmade bow of string and wood, he spun a foot-long stick into the center of the block. The effort was intense. Sweat and strain poured through the work, and eventually there were the early signs of success. The friction created a few small heated embers, which were placed among the dried hay. Smoke lifted in small wisps, and the villager encouraged the process by blowing lightly on the heated area. Soon heat, fuel, and oxygen combined in that time-honored formula, and fire was created. The fire cooked their dinner and provided warmth and light through the evening.

The visitor watched this ritual each night. A different villager would go through the process, the strain, the stress, until everyone was eating and enjoying the fruits of their labor. After a few weeks, the visitor surprised them by gathering the small sticks and hay himself. He placed a block of wood in the middle and, with a hand-crafted bow and a foot-long stick, started the process of making fire for the village. It was a long effort, and many times he got close. The villagers offered encouragement and advice, which helped a great deal. Eventually the visitor, drenched with sweat, got the spark he needed. Dinner was a bit later than normal, but the lateness was understood, and the visitor had become one of the tribe.

The next evening he began the same process. He gathered small sticks and hay. The villagers watched, knowing that this time he would be more successful. They knew he understood how to make a fire. He created the small pile, but he did not place a block in the middle of it. Instead he put larger pieces of wood over the hay and sticks. The villagers assumed that either he had forgotten the purpose here was to make a fire — or he was an idiot. The visitor reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter. With two clicks, a flame sparked, and a single flame could be seen in his hand. He lit the small pile, and soon the fire was roaring and ready to provide the warmth and heat for the night.

Elsewhere, another traveler visited a nearby village and was also welcomed. When the villagers gathered for dinner, one of the members of the tribe assembled a small pile of sticks and hay. With a handmade bow, he started to make a fire. The visitor walked over, pushed him out of the way, grabbed his lighter, and triumphantly lit the fire.

The village ate him.

What's the point? Nobody likes change, and certainly nobody wants some new person to walk in with other ways of doing things without understanding and respecting the company's culture. Learn how a company does what they do before you offer a better way. Because nothing will get you eaten faster than being a smart-ass and a know-it-all — especially if you are right. More people who are right get chewed up and spit out by a company than those who are just stupid. Stupid people just get shoved into a corner and ignored. You may be brilliant. You may have the perfect way to fix the company. But if you don't learn their way of doing things first, you will never have the credibility to suggest a better one.

So before you tell that first employee — or that first leadership team — that you know a better way, show them you understand them. Then they might be ready to understand you.

If you're walking into a company that needs to change how it works, and you'd rather not get eaten, let's talk.