3 minutes
Inaugural Strategic Innovation Institute participants gain insight into managing change.
A man is traveling in the desert with a camel. One night as the man is bunking down, the camel sticks its nose under the tent and says, “Master, it’s cold. May I please put my nose under the tent?” The man allows it. Later, the camel pushes its forelegs under the tent and says, “Master, it is cold. May I also place my forelegs under the tent?” The man agrees. The camel edges further and further into the tent, always with permission. Eventually, the camel is in the tent, the man out in the cold.
You may know this fable. It’s sometimes referenced by politicians who are trying to quash a course of action they believe will lead to more extreme actions with unintended consequences—the proverbial slippery slope. But that rhetoric looks at the fable from the perspective of the camel’s master. What can we learn from the camel?
MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Roberto Fernandez, Ph.D., detailed what the camel did right for the inaugural class of Strategic Innovation Institute, held in September.
Change is hard, especially when it entails taking a risk that could cause a loss. How do you build consensus? Small wins. What the camel knew is that humans are more likely to accept small, incremental changes.
That doesn’t seem like an earth-shaking revelation, does it? But honestly, how often do we apply the principle of incremental change in our work? We are eager to “make things happen,” and inclined to push our goals through quickly, sacrificing consensus (and perhaps effective execution). Slow down and take baby steps. Follow the camel’s lead to win by a nose.
Christopher Stevenson is CUES’ VP/professional development and innovation.
Two Attendees’ Thoughts on Applying the Fable of the Camel
We asked two attendees how they would apply the ideas in the fable of the camel (above) at their CUs. Here are their thoughts.
CUES member Bruce Fafard, president/CEO, $227 million Scient Federal Credit Union, Groton, Conn.
We have started to lay the ground work for changing the way we measure service quality and employee engagement. Doing this bit by bit has meant first getting the board to buy into new data collection methods that would provide immediate rather than annual feedback. Next, we’ll ask our associates to buy in to our new process, and become involved in creating a solution. We are targeting a Jan. 1 go live for our new data collection strategy.
CUES member Nav Khanna, EVP/ chief strategy and innovation officer, $2.2 billion Travis Credit Union, Vacaville, Calif.
At Strategic Innovation Institute, I learned about consistency, the concept that people like to be consistent with previous things they have said or done. Like the story of the camel, if you do not say no right away, it gets harder downstream. Consider a pilot as an example. If we are looking to innovate, and think our organization might resist, we can start with a pilot and get stakeholders to commit. We can then build on small commitments over time, in manageable and incremental ways.
