Sense of urgency

Those familiar with change management will know that the key to changing organizations and individuals is to create a "sense of urgency". I’ve just experienced two very different approaches to getting me to change my behaviour. I suspect both approaches have a cultural touch to them.

As an honest citizen of Munich, I was shocked to receive a letter from the rubbish authorities (my translation of the German Abfallwirtschaftsbetrieb) with the threatening heading Ankündigung der Zwangsvollstreckung. Apparently, the fees for emptying my dustbins had not been paid. They were now sending in the bailiffs to seize property to the value of €1,193.62. I wondered which objects in my flat they would take; certainly my microscopic 1980's Grundig TV would not fetch this much. I had a sleepless night imagining waking up in a Dickensian debtor’s prison in London. Maybe I watched too many classic serials in Britain at Christmas.

As soon as I could, I phoned the "rubbish office" and was told by a pleasant voice that this was all quite normal. I was relieved but surprised, since I am only one of seven owners of flats in a house and the bills are paid by our Hausverwaltung. "Why did you pick on me?" I asked. "We just choose one of the owners," was the reply.

Anyway, I spent the next few hours shooting off faxes and e-mails to protest my innocence and try to prevent the removal of a treasured painting by my Great Uncle Charles, which I suspect is the most valuable object in my flat. A colleague at work suggested that an even more effective way of galvanizing debtors into action would be simply to return the rubbish.

The second approach is connected with a much less trivial crisis. I was shocked to hear of the tragic earthquakes in Haiti. People were dying and homeless and I was worrying about my dustbins. As usual, I was thinking about how I could help but not doing anything. What got me into action was an announcement from the company I work for that for every euro donated by an employee to the Red Cross by the end of January, they would give the same amount. I immediately clicked on the website and made my contribution. If the pledge from the company had not been so clear, concrete and time-bound, I would probably have procrastinated as usual.

By the way, I prefer the second approach to change. When I was training to be a teacher they called this "positive behaviour modification": i.e. you reward children for doing something good. A musical version of this is the marvellous song with the title "Accentuate the Positive" available on You Tube and sung by Bette Midler and Bing Crosby.