Have you ever found yourself standing in a really long queue for something? It may have been for a concert, an exhibition or anything that involved lots of people waiting to do something. One thing we have noticed is that people react differently when caught in long queues – there are the people who just look forward and feel demotivated by how many people are ahead of them, the people who look backwards and feel happy that they are not coming last and then there are the people who look both forward and backward understanding that there is still a way to go, but with an appreciation of how far they have come.
Clearly the third strategy is the one that we think is the smartest queuing strategy, but it translates to so much more than just standing in a queue.
Think of any major change you are undertaking; because it is big there is going to be a lot of ground to cover. Why not break it down to bite size chunks so that you can act, accomplish, reflect, recharge and go again? In order for those small steps to feel like a real accomplishment you could start thinking about queue theory. Take a view of the whole process including each step and mark your ground along the way in a really visible way – that way people can use that visible representation to see exactly how far they have come and how far there is to go.
Laurie Ahearn
I went to a country speedway about 5 years ago and while we were queued up the people at the front of the line were told that due to the unexpected numbers of people they had run out of beef burgers, however, one of the staff had gone to get some more and there would be about a 20 minute wait. Just imagine what the uproar would have been in the city, but to my amazement no one got upset and just stayed in the queue talking, catching up with each other and enjoying each’s company. Seeing this was a nice breath of fresh air.