Moving earth is hard work.

I've got this hill in my backyard, with a retaining wall and stone steps to get up it. The contractor who built it brought in tractors and equipment to break the res clay and roots to move the dirt just where it needed to be. It was extremely difficult and time consuming work (or so it seemed from what I could see through my window).

But when it rains, something extremely frustrating happens. As the rains pours down, and reaches peak volume, and the water begins sheeting across that hill, that same dirt that was labored intensely to break through with machinery just to free, suddenly begins washing away with the water. It washes over those stone steps, and down, collecting in each one exactly where we don't want it.

Each time it rains I watch, and observe just where the water is going, and how it gets there. Because that water will always make it down the hill, across my yard and to the sewer, no matter what I do. But if I'm patient and and able to learn from the water, I can direct the flow to a path that won't wash dirt down the stairs, and still allows the water to make it to it's destination.

Sometimes I think change management is like this. I try to stubbornly use my shovel and work alone to move the 'dirt' of legacy processes, shaping it myself just how I want it. But when the rainfall comes of the work needing to be done, that change gets eroded away, often back to how it was, where the water wants it to stay.

Or, if I spend time observing, where is the work coming from, and where is it going, what path is it taking to get there; perhaps I'll discover an alternate path, away from the ‘stairs’, but still leading where it needs to go. Then let the ‘water’ of the people doing the work move the 'dirt' of the old processes.

It sure does save my back at least.