Connect with Me
Scholz Leadership Development: What We Do
Subscribe to Leader Snips, the Blog by Email
-
RSS Links
About Me
Chip Scholz
Head CoachChip Scholz is Head Coach of Scholz and Associates, Inc. He is a nationally recognized executive coach, public speaker and author. He is a Certified Business Coach and works with CEO’s, business owners and sales professionals across North America.
Chip has written for a number of business and trade publications. 2009 saw the release of his first book project, “Masterminds Unleashed: Selling for Geniuses.” His second book, with co-authors Sue Nielsen and Tracy Lunquist, “Do Eagles Just Wing It?” was published in 2011. His next book "Clear Conduct" is due in 2013.Do Eagles Just Wing It?
Buy a copy of Do Eagles Just Wing It? here!
Masterminds Unleashed: Selling for Geniuses
Buy a copy of Masterminds Unleashed: Selling for Geniuses here!
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Joao Marcelli on The Pros and Cons of Consensus Leadership
- Wishwallca on Top 10 Sites to Track your Goals Online
- Ten Things: Building Your Executive Presence In-House | Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel® on Executive Presence: The Trust Factor
- Victor Crain on A 65-Year-Old Thanksgiving Message for Today’s World
- Jay Jorgenson on 10 Reasons for Managers to
Use Coaching Conversations
Categories
Archives
- September 2021
- July 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
Coaching Change: Can You Fix This?
When I’m called in to coach organizations in their change efforts, I am often handed a bucket-full of problems: “Here, can you fix this?”
One of the main take-aways for me from the book Switch by Dan and Chip Heath is what is called “find the bright spots.” This key principle for change is clearly illustrated with the story of Jerry Sternin working for Save the Children in Vietnam in 1990.
The government had invited Save the Children to fight malnutrition, but when Sternin arrived it was made clear not everyone welcomed him. With minimal staff and meager resources, the foreign minister announced Sternin had six months to make a difference.
Sternin knew that malnutrition was an intertwined set of problems: poor sanitation, universal poverty, rural population ignorance and unclean water. All this was “TBU” – true, but useless information.
“Millions of kids can’t wait for those issues to be addressed,” Sternin said. He traveled to villages and met with groups of mothers. They divided into teams and went out to weigh and measure every child in their villages.
Then he asked the mothers, “Did you find any very, very poor kids who are bigger and healthier than the typical child?” They had. So Sternin went with the mothers to find out what these particular mothers were doing differently.
The strategy was to find the bright spots, successful efforts they could emulate. Sternin calls such outliers “positive deviants,” and Fast Company wrote about it in 2000.
If a handful of kids were staying healthy in spite of the problems, then there was a way for all the others.
It turned out these bright spot kids were being fed four times a day (using the same amounts of food the others were getting in two meals). And their mothers were collecting tiny shrimp and crabs from rice paddies and tossing in sweet-potato greens. They were getting added protein and vitamins to their diet.
But just knowing a solution wasn’t going to make mothers change behaviors. Sternin knew change would have to be their own initiative, in their own way. The communities organized cooking groups for the most malnourished families. The cooking classes changed the culture of the village, as it created social pressure to go along.
Six months after Sternin had come to Vietnam, 65 percent of the kids were better nourished and stayed that way. The program eventually reached 2.2 million Vietnamese people in 265 villages.
With no budget and certainly no power or influence, in a country where he couldn’t speak the language, Sternin was able to hone in on a small section of mothers who were already solving the problem, and to clone those solutions to the larger population.
He focused on what was working instead of what was wrong. How can we apply this strong lesson to our own bucket-full of problems?
Here’s the lessons I’ve gathered from this story:
Find out what is working in spite of everything else. See if those bright spots can’t be replicated and scaled. Let people own the problem and the solutions.
What do you think about this? The next time someone hands you a bucket, why not try to find the one place or one group of people who seem to be doing better and start from there.
Related posts: