Leading from the Middle

Caption: Chainless

This essay is about a bike chain*, so let’s jerk the chain a bit of those who have no use for Shakespeare (That dead, white, male, you know!) Please complete the title quote:
A. Maple syrup.
B. Vinegar
C. Adversity
D. The iWatch
E. None of the above.

I often write about the right answer, Adversity. For example, my chapter, “Productivity in Libraries? Managers Step Aside!” in Leading from the Middle
has several paragraphs on how adversity can help an organization. Being the contrarian, I have always seen adversity as an opportunity, a rare opening for change to break into a traditional organization.
By now you may be muttering, where is this going?
OK.
Library colleague and friend Evangela Oates posted a video of a mountain
bike race in which one of the competitors, Aaron Gwin, snaps his chain at the top of the run. Permit me to revert to breathless Internet speak: “His chain breaks at the start. You will be amazed by what happens! OMG!”
Now, I have a couple of levels at which I can interpret the broken chain. One I have already alluded to, how we deal with adversity. You know the clichés: “When life hands you lemons, make …..”
And, Winston Churchill’s famous, “Never, never, never give up.”
Or, the dubious but harrowing, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” Imagine what your hair looks like after surviving a lightning strike.
Mr. Gwin is handed a lemon at the starting gate. His choices: call it a day or go for it. He chooses adversity and claims a World Cup win.
Now another level of interpretation is metaphor.
What is the chain but a symbol of energy transfer. If the bike is a system, then the chain transfers energy from outside – the rider – and makes the back wheel move. The chain provides motivational energy to the system. So, what happens, off the mountain, in an organization when the outside energy stops or dwindles to less than what is needed?
What does an organization, dunned for a tenth of its budget, do? In times like that, I was told over and over we could not go on or, as one consultant put it: “There is no part of this “bicycle” that you could do without.” So, do you surrender? If you follow Mr. Gwin’s lead, you ride, hell–for–leather.
Whenever we did in the organization what Mr. Gwin did on the mountain, we’d win.
Another level of interpretation is somewhat technical; indeed the bike techies, after Mr. Gwin’s win, went back and forth on the question of needing a chain on a downward slope. Is chainless better? One went so far as to ask: “Could it be that the chainless drivetrain is the biggest tech breakthrough of the year?!”
Well, yes, as long as there are not too many plateaus in the downward run – another metaphor, that. In that case, as I found frequently on the job, doing without some part or process deemed absolutely essential actually improved what we did, in quality, quantity and service.
Simplicity trumps complexity every time.

*Writing this takes me back to my University of Colorado at Boulder days, decades ago, when I rode my bike to work at Norlin Library and all over campus carrying out my administrative duties. I even gave up my highly coveted XX parking permit which allowed me to park my car anywhere on campus!
That bike was a Raleigh, three speed and all I needed. No mountain bike, but it served me well, in sunshine, snow, rain, wind and mist.

Leading from the Middle Library of the Week: American Library Association Library, 50 E. Huron St. Chicago, IL USA

© John Lubans 2015

 

Your comment: Name: Website: E-mail: Remember Me