When Transformations Cannot Afford to Fail!

There have been a range of theories as to why cars drive on the right in the US and most of Europe.

On the US side, the Conestoga wagon was key to their story as was the predominance of most wagon drivers being right-handed. When the driver needed to walk alongside the wagon, it made sense to be on the left, so pushing the wagon to the right of the road. The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road, the US’s first main highway, opened in 1795. Among the rules written into its charter, according to the book “Ways of the World” by M.G. Lay, was that all traffic had to stay to the right — just like the Conestoga wagons did.

?In France, the left side of the road was, by long cultural convention, reserved for carriages and those on horseback. In other words, the wealthier classes. Pedestrians, i.e. poorer folks, kept to the right. The French revolutionary government under Maximilien Robespierre — best known for leading the late 18th-century “Reign of Terror” in which thousands were guillotined — dictated that everyone should drive on the right. Forcing everyone to the same side of the road, besides being good for traffic, was part of doing away with these snobby class distinctions. ?The French policy is said to have been spread by Napoleon as his armies marched through Europe.

?There is one nation that was neither a subject nor ally of Napoleon. That would be Sweden. Sweden drove on the left, up until one surprisingly uneventful day in 1967 when drivers there switched to the right.

?That day saw the culmination of a huge transformation process.

?Dagen H (H-Day), otherwise known as “H?gertrafikoml?ggningen" ("The right-hand traffic diversion") was the day that Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right.

In the early hours of September 3, 1967, all traffic across Sweden came to a halt. All non-essential cars were banned from the road from 1:00 a.m. onwards. At 4:50 a.m., everything on wheels stopped.

?Then, in systematically careful fashion, every car, truck, and bus moved from the left to the right-hand side of the road. Slowly, traffic began moving again, the streets flowing in a mirror image of the way they had the day before.

?It was one of the greatest traffic logistics solutions ever enacted. The problem it was designed to deal with was straightforward but quite serious. Up until this point, Swedes drove on the left side of the road (and on the right-hand side of the car), as is still the convention in the U.K., Australia, and Japan. But in the countries that Sweden shares a land border with—namely, Finland and Norway—cars drive on the right side of the road. Crossing the border from Sweden into Norway was a bit of a kerfuffle, to say nothing of a visiting Finn in Stockholm getting a bit absentminded and driving the wrong way down a street.

?Perhaps more pressing was that the Swedish themselves were wrecking cars by the hundreds. Traffic speeds had increased significantly through the 1950s and into the 1960s, and fatalities were way up. The vast majority of the cars driven in Sweden were left-hand-drive, which made passing on the right especially hazardous.

?As transformations go, this was one that couldn’t afford to fail. And it didn’t. It was a remarkable success, even if some of the original assumptions, such as its effect on reducing accidents didn’t quite materialise over time. Incredibly, despite public opinion being 83% against the proposed changes just four years prior, the Swedish government had pulled off a transformation masterclass.

?Of course, the results could have been tragic, but they weren’t. Indeed, in the early days, traffic deaths decreased by nearly 18 per cent, and injuries were reduced by 11 per cent, before returning to the same levels a few years later.??

?What is interesting is all the boxes the programme ticked to get it to work successfully.? At the outset, the programme had a clear mission to put Sweden on the same path as the rest of its continental European neighbours. It was one everyone understood, enabling them to focus on a common goal.

?The Government had also put in place its best leaders that were capable of organising and driving such a transformation.? Naturally, it was a complex, multi-departmental, multi-agency, national and local change programme, so it meant a huge array of stakeholders needing to be aware of and bought in to their own roles. Leadership was therefore critical, requiring people to have a deep understanding of the linkages between their own projects and those in the wider programme. This fits a narrative presented by McKinsey which suggest allocating high performers to the highest-value initiatives gives organisations the highest chance of success.?

?The investment in the planning and logistics needed to prepare for such a major change was clearly fundamental. In the run-up to H-Day, each local municipality had to deal with issues ranging from repainting road markings to relocating bus stops and traffic lights, and redesigning intersections, bicycle lanes and one-way streets. Several cities including Stockholm, Malm? and Helsingborg had also used the change to implement more wide-ranging transport changes, such as closing tram lines to allow for more bus routes. Hundreds of new buses were purchased by municipalities around the country, and around 8,000 older buses were reconfigured to provide doors on both sides.

?On H-Day itself, some 2,000 soldiers, 6,000 civil police, 50,000 school police, and 150,000 volunteers were on duty throughout Sweden, while an army of construction workers had worked throughout the night to make alterations to 350,000 street signs.

?Drawing a link to our previous newsletter, winning Hearts & Minds amongst the public was going to be crucial. In the end, the PR campaign lasted 4 years and engaged psychologists to work out how to motivate the population of Sweden to make the switch.

?If you thought the marketing campaign for Dagen H was going to be mundane, think again. The Swedes went all out. They designed a special “H-Day” logo and slapped it on everything from milk cartons to underwear. The government sponsored a national televised H-Day song contest and the winning tune “Keep to the right, Svensson” was played frequently in the run up to the big day. With the politicians realising that it wasn’t enough to have an information programme, they needed a propaganda campaign, public service television booked global celebrities to appear on its most popular television shows, designed to attract large audiences. Put together, the programme was designed to educate the public and get them to comprehend, buy in and finally implement the change - classic AIDA in marketing speak!

?After go live, that campaign then became about securing the benefits by continuing to build good habits.? To that effect, the government gave out thousands of pairs of driving gloves with a red left hand and a green right hand so that once the switch was made, drivers would quickly build the habit of driving on the correct (green glove) side of the road.? As you would imagine, “thrilling” is the word repeatedly used to describe the feeling of participating in a nationwide mission to get all Swedish motorists and cyclists to change the habits of a lifetime and begin driving on the right-hand side of the road for the first time.

?When we hear statistics like only 30% of transformations are successful, it does put into context the gargantuan size of the achievement Sweden made in 1967.? What’s also clear, is that the core principles of successful transformations don’t really change that much. A clear mission, skilled leadership, effective planning, bringing people with you and embedding good habits will dramatically increase the chances of an organisation’s success. Indeed, when an organisation frees up its bandwidth from other initiatives and focuses its resources and energy solely on a transformation, then it’s possible to take the truly holistic approach that success requires.

The Swedes should be congratulated for doing just that!

?There is an interesting article here written by the U. S. Department of Transportation if you want to read more.. https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrr/1968/234/234-003.pdf

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