What eating ice cream teaches me about Change Management

Is it possible to live on ice cream, coffee, books and a touch of prosecco? Well, based on extensive research I have conducted over the years, the answer is a most definite YES. I can’t think of any other main food group that is so versatile as ice cream – great for breakfast, awesome for lunch, perfect for dinner, and totally amazing for the snacks in between… And if you get some kind of craving every now and again? Ice cream! Coffee ice cream?

As American author Abbi Waxman put it, “Sometimes life is what it is, and the best you can hope for is ice cream.” While struggling with the heatwave in Switzerland over the last days, I put all my faith and hope in ice cream (and the ceiling fans I had installed last year). Under severe weather conditions, the small size of my freezer turned out to be quite life-endangering. I also remembered one of my most painful memories: parting ways with my ice cream machine and sending it to storage a few years ago. I just looked for a new one online, and I feel like my life will take a turn for the better (and definitely sweeter!)

Nothing like starting the day with an ice cream at 5am to ignite inspiration for the Tuesday writing. And here we go, a few takeaways for change work, before ideas melt away…

To scoop or not to scoop? That is the question. Let me start off by saying that, based on wide-ranging research, there is enormous wisdom in the advice to never ask a woman who is eating ice cream straight from the carton how she's doing. Some people say that the secret to enjoying ice cream is the perfect scoop. To each their own, I say. I got reminded of this about two weeks ago, when I had some friends over for dinner. We had apple pie for dessert. With ice cream on top, of course. As it turned out, patience in the presence of ice cream was not one of our virtues, and we had a “scoop incident.” While looking for a new set of ice cream scoops, I started thinking about the use of tools in change work. Not so much about the tools themselves (I have been known to bend spoons and break plastic utensils in fresh out of the freezer ice cream), as about the timing and skillfulness of their use. Right timing is essential if you aim for the perfect scoop, and not a biceps training. You should wait for the ice cream to get slightly soft around the edges, until you can squeeze it lightly. The next step triggers debates. Some say a dry, room-temperature scooper is always the way to go. Using a wet scoop glazes ice cream with a thin layer of ice, while hot water will melt ice cream too much, causing ice crystals to form faster when you return the carton to the freezer. Others will swear by the magic powers of a wet scoop and will have none of this dry scoop talk. And did you know there are professional scoops out there with the handle filled with a liquid that transfers heat from your hand to the aluminum scoop, which melts just a little bit of ice cream as you run it over the surface and cleanly releases the ice cream from the metal? Sometimes, a spoon is all you need, really! A spoon and commitment. Or an honest craving. How you time your change interventions is key, above and beyond the actual tools that you use. How you use them comes down to context, personal preferences and experience, organizational realities, stakeholders’ expectations. ?

Enjoy it before it melts. This seems such a straight-forward advice. But is it really? It makes me reflect on the merits of simplification, and how easy (or should I say “simple”?) it is to misuse it. Following a methodology, a method, a “how to” guide without intentional curiosity, deep awareness, and granular understanding of the organization, its people and their realities is just as meaningful as eating ice cream before it melts. Is it summer or a colder season, therefore how fast should this happen? Is your throat more on the sensitive side, and you prefer slightly melted ice cream, like my mom does? Are you going for an ice cream cone, stick or carton? One scoop or the gigantino cup? And don’t be so quick to discard melted ice cream. I am totally with American actor Chris Pratt on “You can pour melted ice cream on regular ice cream. It's like a sauce!” When you do change work, look for… “melted projects” on purpose. They can yield amazing insights and additional resources – lessons learned, knowledge and information, requirements, deliverables, pointers regarding stakeholder dynamics, patterns and behaviors. What a great “sauce” for your endeavor!

Do you care about the seasons? Many would argue, yours truly included, that this question is the one true filter between amateur and professional ice cream eaters. “It is a grave error to assume that ice cream consumption requires hot weather.” Here, take it from American writer and journalist Anne Fadiman! While enjoying ice cream over the last hot days, I could not help but miss having a gooseberry-flavored ice cream cone for breakfast on my way to the office through snow and temperatures of -27?C when I lived in Tallinn… oh, good times! In many change conversations, the question about what the right time for change is pops up almost without exception. Is there such a thing as the right time for change? Especially in the realities we have been navigating over the past years, personally and professionally? Reflecting on people’s preference to “timebox” their ice cream consumption based on seasons and the recent scoop incident, I would encourage everyone doing change work in some way, shape and form, to turn the “right time for change” challenge into an “appropriate timing of relevant change work” conversation.

In a recent conversation, I was asked if I saw myself doing change work for the rest of my life. Hmmmm, I don’t know. What I do know is that my love and fascination for this kind of work shows no signs of melting in the near future… I recently stumbled upon rap music icon Snoop Dogg career change goals: “When I'm not longer rapping, I want to open up an ice cream parlor and call myself Scoop Dogg.” I would give up my change work to go into a business partnership with Scoop Dogg! Anyone got a lead?

Until next week, keep calm and eat ice cream!