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How to Get Past the “Messy Middle” of a Big Change | Mary Martin | TED
How to Get Past the “Messy Middle” of a Big Change | Mary Martin | TED
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자막 (310)
0:04
I snapped this photo of my daughter this
0:06
summer when we had the chance to hike
0:08
together on our vacation in Colorado.
0:11
I know you can't see her face, but I
0:13
promise she's smiling.
0:15
She is so glad she made it to the top of
0:19
the mountain.
0:21
But actually the photo op almost didn't
0:24
happen.
0:25
Because after starting out with
0:28
incredible optimism and excitement and
0:30
joining me on this hike,
0:32
she quickly began to grow tired. Her
0:36
7-year-old legs after an hour of steep
0:38
terrain
0:40
had had all they could take and she was
0:42
getting frustrated
0:44
and teary-eyed
0:46
and I realized I needed to shift from
0:48
hiking companion to cheerleader.
0:52
I know you can do it.
0:54
I've actually been to the top of this
0:55
mountain and we're almost there.
0:59
Of course we can turn around if you need
1:00
to, but I think you're going to be glad
1:03
that you made it.
1:05
She was really ready to give up, but
1:07
then
1:08
she scrambled up that last little ledge
1:11
to the top
1:13
and all of that frustration faded as she
1:16
saw the view
1:18
and took in the sunshine. She was so
1:20
proud of herself.
1:23
Now, even if you've never been hiking,
1:25
which I do encourage if you haven't,
1:28
I imagine you can relate to this story.
1:31
Because no matter whether you've started
1:33
a business, made a big career switch, or
1:37
just tried to take up tennis at the age
1:39
of 40. Not that I know anything about
1:42
that.
1:43
We all have experienced what I call the
1:46
messy middle.
1:49
It's that moment when the pinnacle seems
1:52
completely out of reach even though
1:54
you've done everything right.
1:58
As a senior leader in BCG's digital and
2:00
AI practice, I've worked with dozens of
2:03
business leaders as they've transformed
2:05
their companies using new technologies.
2:09
Almost [snorts] every one of these
2:11
transformation journeys starts out in
2:13
the same way. There's a lot of
2:14
excitement, there's a lot of optimism
2:16
because everyone knows this is the
2:18
opportunity to do something new.
2:22
But inevitably, they hit the messy
2:24
middle.
2:25
Maybe results are slow to materialize.
2:28
Maybe their teams start to lose
2:30
confidence, or maybe the market changes.
2:33
It's out of their control.
2:35
And no matter what the context,
2:38
just like my daughter, even very
2:41
seasoned executives
2:43
grow frustrated in this moment.
2:46
And many of them actually want to call
2:47
off the transformation.
2:51
Well, as much as we want to avoid those
2:52
messy middle moments, I would argue
2:55
not only are they inevitable,
2:58
they're a good thing.
3:00
Why? Because messiness is a sign of bold
3:04
ambition.
3:05
Change absolutely is hard simply because
3:09
it's hard.
3:10
Transformation without a messy middle
3:14
means you probably won't get the big
3:16
results you were hoping for.
3:18
And so, instead of being afraid of this
3:20
moment,
3:22
you should embrace it.
3:23
It means you're on the right track.
3:26
Okay, obviously that doesn't make it
3:28
easy. We need tools to weather the messy
3:31
middle successfully.
3:33
And my advice is to look for glimmers of
3:36
progress, small indicators that you're
3:39
on the right track,
3:41
even when the summit is completely out
3:43
of sight.
3:45
The first place I look for these
3:46
glimmers of progress is in results for
3:48
the business.
3:50
So, one of my clients is a fast-food
3:52
chicken brand.
3:54
And when we started working together,
3:56
their operations were fairly slow. It
3:58
took about 18 minutes to cook an order
4:00
of chicken wings.
4:02
And that was because they were cooking
4:04
fresh chicken and not pre-cooked frozen
4:07
chicken. So, I don't know if you've ever
4:08
had chicken wings, but when they're
4:10
freshly cooked, they are delicious.
4:13
But customers were pretty unhappy
4:15
because time was long. They didn't want
4:18
to wait that long.
4:19
We needed a way to speed things up
4:22
without sacrificing quality.
4:25
So, we designed an AI-powered
4:27
forecasting tool that would predict how
4:30
many customer orders were going to be
4:32
placed
4:33
and then would guide the employees in
4:35
the store on how much chicken to
4:37
prepare, so there was always fresh
4:40
chicken
4:41
when orders were placed.
4:43
Great vision. The CEO knew this was the
4:46
right approach.
4:47
But it was going to take some time. We
4:49
needed to design, we needed to build,
4:51
and then we needed to scale it out. And
4:53
in the meantime, the CEO had to go to
4:55
all those franchisees and convince them
4:58
that they should make some meaningful
4:59
investments in this new technology.
5:02
We didn't have a year to wait and hope
5:06
that the results turned out like we
5:08
expected.
5:09
So, we focused on finding glimmers of
5:11
progress.
5:13
We built a very rudimentary version of
5:15
the tool.
5:16
And then we took it on a clipboard,
5:19
printed Excel sheet, and a pen. We went
5:22
one night into a restaurant and we stood
5:24
with the employees and we guided them on
5:26
how to prepare the food.
5:27
So, how about you drop 25 chicken wings
5:30
into the fryer now?
5:32
15 minutes later, now drop 60 chicken
5:34
wings into the fryer.
5:37
That first test showed great promise. We
5:40
were seeing a couple minutes shaved off
5:42
their speed of service. Certainly wasn't
5:44
perfect. No one wants to do this
5:46
manually.
5:48
But it showed the potential and it was
5:50
enough to give the entire leadership
5:52
team conviction that we were on the
5:53
right track.
5:55
In the months that followed, we kept
5:56
investing in the solution, improving it,
5:59
so we were seeing a 50% improvement in
6:01
speed of service.
6:03
And as more restaurants were testing it,
6:05
seeing better and better results,
6:06
franchisees grew excited, investors grew
6:09
excited, and they were ready to scale to
6:12
the entire system.
6:14
Without that very first test and that
6:17
glimmer of progress, it would have been
6:19
really hard to have conviction for what
6:22
became a multi-year journey.
6:26
The second place you can look for
6:27
glimmers of progress is in your team,
6:29
how they're working together.
6:32
Another one of my clients is a gas
6:34
station and convenience store chain.
6:37
We worked with them on a multi-year
6:39
transformation to improve most of their
6:42
core business functions with AI.
6:45
So things like how they priced the
6:46
products in the store, how they staffed
6:49
their labor and and how many people were
6:51
staffed in the store,
6:53
how they planned the inventory mix they
6:55
were going to have.
6:57
At the start of this journey together,
6:59
we surveyed their team because we wanted
7:01
to understand if they were going to have
7:03
any points of friction. Could we get
7:04
ahead of any challenges?
7:07
And we found that most of their
7:09
mid-level managers
7:11
didn't really feel like they had a voice
7:14
in how company decisions were being
7:16
made.
7:18
And so the chief digital officer, who
7:20
was leading this,
7:22
implemented a simple, powerful concept.
7:26
Everyone has a flag
7:29
and I need you to use it.
7:32
What he meant was, no matter your role,
7:34
no matter your title,
7:36
if you raise a flag, senior leaders are
7:39
going to listen
7:40
and they will act.
7:43
Within just a couple months, members of
7:45
the extended working team had suggested
7:48
some changes to our timeline,
7:50
some different ways to think about
7:51
scoping the use cases, even different
7:54
ways that we could test things to make
7:56
sure we were getting the best results.
7:59
And the chief digital officer went a
8:00
little farther. He actually had the team
8:02
members, not the senior leaders,
8:05
present results regularly to the CEO.
8:09
This was such a significant cultural
8:11
shift.
8:13
And we went from people feeling like
8:15
change was just being forced down into
8:17
the organization
8:19
to feeling like they really had a voice
8:21
in how the objectives were being set.
8:24
And it was that shift in the team that
8:26
gave us confidence that the results we
8:29
delivered were going to stick.
8:31
And that was long before we saw the
8:33
double-digit returns that that
8:34
transformation yielded.
8:38
Finally, if you're in a messy middle,
8:40
you can look for glimmers of progress in
8:43
yourself.
8:45
One of my other clients was the chief
8:47
strategy officer for a group of snack
8:49
food brands.
8:51
And we were working with them on a large
8:53
effort to rethink some of their digital
8:57
app experiences,
8:58
to develop better email communications,
9:01
and to redesign some of the loyalty
9:03
programs, not just in one of the brands,
9:05
but actually multiple brands across the
9:07
group.
9:09
When we started working together, the
9:11
chief strategy officer had a lot of
9:13
conviction, a very clear vision. He was
9:16
really the one advocating for this
9:18
transformation.
9:20
But he hadn't led anything this big, and
9:22
he didn't really have any intuition on
9:25
how this journey was going to feel as it
9:27
unfolded.
9:29
And I watched as he grew frustrated,
9:33
even with his own team,
9:35
because progress was happening more
9:37
slowly than he wanted.
9:40
When other senior members of the
9:41
organization would question the approach
9:44
or sometimes just express skepticism,
9:48
he would go defensive.
9:50
And by the midway point of the 18-month
9:52
journey, his relationships were strained
9:55
with most of the other leaders.
9:59
He came to the realization that he was
10:01
going to have to change his approach.
10:03
Because he couldn't make this successful
10:06
on his own. He had to have partnership.
10:10
And I watched him begin to intentionally
10:13
tune his leadership style.
10:16
He started working on building bridges,
10:19
on bringing people along.
10:21
He would show up to meetings ready to
10:23
listen and not trying to push one
10:26
agenda.
10:28
He would work on controlling what he
10:30
could control
10:32
and let the organization move at its
10:34
pace around him.
10:37
To be honest, it didn't make the journey
10:38
easier. It was a hard transformation.
10:41
But that sign of progress in him as a
10:44
leader
10:45
actually was one of the biggest
10:47
indicators that this was going to
10:49
succeed for the company.
10:52
So maybe you're finding yourself in a
10:54
messy middle right now, personally or
10:57
professionally.
10:59
Try to remember
11:00
messiness is a sign that you're doing
11:03
something big.
11:04
You haven't reached the goal yet,
11:07
but you will.
11:09
Maybe you haven't won a tennis match
11:11
like me,
11:12
but your backhand is improving.
11:15
Maybe you haven't hit the big milestone
11:17
that's next on your list,
11:19
but you've delivered a small win.
11:22
Celebrate it.
11:24
I like to buy cupcakes for my team or
11:26
make a cake.
11:28
Maybe you just take the time to call a
11:30
mentor and share your success.
11:33
Whatever you do,
11:35
turn those glimmers into energy
11:38
that will propel you up the mountain.
11:42
Because I am very confident that when
11:45
you climb over those last few rocks
11:48
and you walk into the sunshine,
11:51
you will be really glad that you didn't
11:53
turn around.
11:55
Thank you.
11:57
>> [applause]
