The value of discipline

I've been on the road a lot the last two weeks which implies several things: I've been sitting down a lot, I finally know how to buckle my seat belt in an airplane after all these years, and I've been able to have conversations with people I don't typically have face to face conversations with during a given week. It's that last activity, combined with some time to reflect while flying or waiting to fly that brings me to the following thoughts.

There are examples of good design, service, business all around us. I won't try to call any examples out specifically because I don't want to detract from the main point - but just think of something in your life that you like and why you like it.

I'd be willing to bet that lurking behind that thing you like is a person or group of people who are responsible for its creation, development, design. Whenever I take the time to understand what I like, I usually re-learn that the "product" is the end result of intense discipline to a set of relatively simple principles.

To me, there are two ways to sustain that discipline: enthusiastic belief in the principles and/or enforcement of adherence to the principles. When I think about this in relation to the four themes for ITS in our January all-staff meeting, and bounce it off of the feedback I've received since our meeting we have all of the ingredients to sustain a commitment to those guiding principles: the principles and people who enthusiastically believe in them.

Some have asked about how we'll enforce adherence/adoption and it's a good question. Some others have scoffed at the themes saying it's more of the same and while well intended, won't effect change. Let's start change by investing in those who believe in the themes and would like to help get to where they'll take us and then we can talk about what we'll do if some folks just don't get it. I'd like to think that if we get enough momentum going by focusing on the themes and taking personal action, we won't have to think about enforcement. Enthusiastic belief combined with action can overwhelm the need for enforcement to the point where it is merely an afterthought, and that's what I'm trying to encourage us all to shoot for. How many of us can we get going in the same direction? We'll take score later, after we've got some momentum going.