Two facts: eggs go rotten & leading people takes bravery. 

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Leading people means developing systems that safely allow everyone to honestly evaluate whether things need to be changed.  It means not necessarily having all the answers, but being confident that when the right people ask the right questions, the answers are uncovered.  

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Leading people means we are not afraid to charge others with questioning why. When others avoid judging the deficiencies of the current system or the people who developed it, real change can occur. For this to happen successfully, egos need to be put aside.

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The operators of a system need to be given permission to think outside the box and imagine what things would look like if they were allowed to restart or reinvent.  Those operators have all the knowledge, skill and experience to understand what would make something better and they understand where the deficiencies and inefficiencies are. 

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This philosophy becomes embedded in the fabric of a team’s culture and involves:

• Resisting the urge to play it safe by keeping the egg nestled in its stable shell.

• Risking the mess involved by cracking it for a potential new product: a nutritious omelet.

• Asking why and releasing emotional connection to the past. 

The queue for reassessment is the response: “Because we’ve always done it this way.”

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When we hear this response, excitement should rise because we now have the opportunity to shape something into a new invention, our invention, a more modern and relevant way of doing something.

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Across human history, we were right when we were wrong.  Good ideas turned out to be terrible ones with time. It does not mean our ancestors were wrong, it simply means their systems are not right for today.  We once thought the Earth was flat, we thought seatbelts were just an annoyance and we did not think smoking could be unhealthy.  However, when we cracked those eggs, we changed the world.

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Be brave, ask why, crack eggs, eat omelets, adapt, and survive.