Sometimes doing it the write way, is no longer the right way...

Do you know why a QWERTY keyboard has the keys where they are? There's a really good reason... Well... there USED to be.

For the youngsters, let me explain how an early manual typewriter worked.

In the original typewriters the letters were attached to little metal strikers that were arrayed in a semi-circular layout. When each key was struck, the striker attached to that key would move to hit the exact same point on the ink tape. You can imagine it like a semi-circle and the centre of the circle, each striker made the movement from perimeter to the centre point when you struck the key, and the paper would inch along between each strike so that the new letter would be perfectly printed after the previous one.

But because of this convergence on the same spot, if two letters were used too soon after each other they could jam, locking up the keyboard – requiring them to be manually disentangled before typing could continue. This caused time-loss and created frustration. So humans used their imaginations to come up with a plan.

Each letter on the QWERTY keyboard was spaced to create as little chance of them jamming on each other when the letters were struck. Genius.

This is not a problem we have today (well, not unless you are a novelist in an old romance movie).

So why do we still have the same keyboard layout? Is it still helpful? I think when it comes to typing the answer is yes, it is still helpful. We have developed neural pathways that don't make sense to rewire.

Some neural pathways, however, would be very beneficial to rewire.

We have this QWERTY dynamic in our organisations too. There are process and policies we have inherited and don't know why, and haven't thought to challenge.

Maybe once upon a time there were reasons for "Always print a paper version of the leave form (I speak from painful past experience),

or

"cc'ing in 'so and so' on all emails dealing with 'such and such'"

or

"no-one except Bruce must touch the server."

Well, Bruce resigned a year ago, and do we really need to buy a new printer just because we're still printing leave forms? ... Lets ask 'so and so' next time we cc him in on an irrelevant email.

We have forgotten the reasons sometimes for why we do things the way we do. Sometimes the “the write way” has become the “wrong way.”

Leadership styles are a case in point.

There is a lot that we, as leaders, need to rethink. Sure, there were good reasons once upon a time, but perhaps those times are past and we are still "typing away" on outdated neural pathways. The reason for creating that neural architecture in the first place may no longer apply and we haven't thought to challenge the status quo.

For instance... are you still treating your team members like cogs in a machine? Employees on an assembly line? Workers with no need to think, and no human agency. It's the Fourth Industrial Revolution! Get with the (digital) programme people!

How we develop or train people at work is another case in point.

There are pedagogies that no longer make good business sense but no-one has investigated the new technologies. And are you investing in the right things? Technical skills are important, yes, but relational and emotional skills are fast overtaking them in the hierarchy of what we will need in the future. There are new paradigms of thinking for how to succeed in training, and unless you want to be left in the past, you will need to come to terms with shifting the keys around on the "training keyboard."

Add these two ideas together, Leaderships and Training, and it becomes clear. The ones who hold the keys are the ones who need to do the rewiring.

Now, at Mygrow we can't help solve all the things that need to change for the future of work, but we can help you with rewiring your leadership and we can help you re-right how you train your people. And we'll do it all with a pedagogy firmly aligned to the needs of the future – making humans more human.

Give us a call. (Sorry, force of neural habit, don't call... find us on the internet)

;)