adminThis week I want to examine the internal process that the substandard exploits to gain ground.
Imagine you get home after a long day at the office to find that your young son has had a drawing session, on your lounge wall.
The permanent marker he used does not wash off so you go to bed with the intention to call the painter in the morning.
Morning comes and goes and you forget to call the painter.
That evening the artwork virtually screams at you. In frustration you move a bookshelf in front of it just to get it out of your sight.
At least you can no longer see it. The next day you remember why the bookshelf is out of place, but without the visual cue of a defaced wall calling the painter does not seem as important.
By the end of the week you have forgotten about calling the painter and persuaded yourself that the new bookshelf position looks so much better.
What you have experienced is a mental creep. Mental creep occurs when your brain adapts to the status quo.
Your brain is wired to react to anything that deviates from the picture of how things should be that you carry in your brain.
When it senses something out of kilter with your normal picture it freaks out to get you back on track.
However, if you ignore the emotional trauma long enough it adapts by altering the image in your head just to get the emotion to go away.
Buy a new clock with a loud tick and put it in your bedroom. For the first night you would not sleep with the noise.
After a week you will barely be aware of it as your brain adapts. Now remove the clock and the deafening silence will keep you up at night!
That is how the substandard sneaks in a lot of the time, a subtle movement away from the ideal.
It gives ground gently day after day that you barely notice until after a month you look up and realise how far from the mark you really are.
For example, if you were piloting a boat and were just one degree off course, you would probably not notice that you are way off target.
After a hundred metres you would only be a couple of metres out and that is easy to correct.
However, allow yourself to try cross the Atlantic and see the difference a degree makes after a couple of thousand kilometres.
Here are a few ways to guard against mental creep:
- Be quick to call the painter.
Swift correction of deviation prevents it being brushed under the carpet so to speak.
If something in your organisation is faulty then correct it promptly. I watched a nurse at a hospital changing a bed and she noticed a hole in a pillowcase.
She tore it up. Extreme? Possibly, but it made sure that the substandard linen would never be used on the ward again.
I asked her why she tore it up and she said that torn linen was not their standard, nor was it the standard of the doctors who worked with them.
- Keep alive the vision of what you want things to look like. Maintaining a vision is hard.
It will be challenged by circumstances, by your own doubt and by those around you.
Take the time to frequently remember the image that you are building towards. Remind yourself of why you have the standards you do.
- Go somewhere better for a while. Holidays and travel are important fora number of reasons.
Apart from rest, relaxation and a chance to gather your thoughts, they allow you the opportunity to experience excellence again (assuming that you are going somewhere excellent that is).
By deliberately putting yourself in an environment where you are away from the familiar it allows you to recalibrate.
When you get home after a break you will be in a better position to notice the faults in your own life and correct them.
Things do not have to stay the same ladies and gentlemen. Shoddiness does not have to be tolerated.
Change is possible but it begins with each of us taking responsibility for where we are and making an effort to change.
Online Reporter