Tip of the Day – THWADI
Let me introduce you to my friend, THWADI. He’s not very likeable; he creeps into the room, he grows and sits in the way but after a while you don’t even notice he’s there. You start to walk around him in order to get things done and in the end you get so comfortable you don’t even realise he’s not part of the architecture. In fact when someone asks about him, you leap in to defend him despite yourself, because he’s become part of the furniture.
What am I talking about?
That’s How We’ve Always Done It (THWADI). When you find yourself, or others, saying something along these lines, that’s a warning flag. Just cos we’ve always done it, it doesn’t mean we still have to.
Here’s an example from a former client – I was booking video conference (VC) rooms so that I could talk face-to-face across cities. In one city all the rooms are bookable by individuals, in the other, 16 out of 19 rooms were administered centrally.
Central administration means:
Everyone has extra steps to go through to book a VC room
No one can see if they are booked or who has booked
There is no transparency of people booking rooms then not using them
If a room is empty, does that mean it’s available?
When two people turn up to use a room, neither can see who actually has it booked
Reception has lots of extra work
Don’t get me wrong, the staff on reception were great and did a good job, it’s THWADI who had crept into the process.
So I asked, can we make these rooms visible to everyone? After some lengthy discussion with the lovely receptionist about why the it’s like that, the final word was ”it’s been like that for years and it works”.
Really?
Fundamentally this displays a lack of trust in our staff. We have employed adults who can work together to negotiate the use of shared rooms, but we treat them like children who need someone to intercede. This is a classic example of THWADI entering the room. That also means that I had to tread carefully, as people get very attached to THWADI!
Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have the happy ending that you’re expecting. After emailing and calling the receptionist’s boss many times, and mentioning it to the CIO, I gave up because I was getting no replies. I finished at that organisation before I could sort this out – just goes to show that THWADI is very strong sometimes, in the small things, so you will have to be extra vigilant. Keep an ear out for him and when you hear him, that’s a sign that you have to do something about him, or he just gets stronger and stronger.
