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.

 

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Written by Lisa Smith

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Lisa is a professional thinker dedicated to helping people unlock their innate creativity and to empower them to think differently – for themselves. She is passionate about building innovative cultures and about harnessing and engaging talent to create thinking communities. Lisa holds an MBA, specialising in organisational change and innovation, which forms the nucleus of her work. She relishes opportunities to share the Minds at Work thinking strategies with government bodies, socially responsible corporate, educators, community groups and farmers, helping them to turn their big ideas into realities.