Carpets & Curtains: How to Balance Change
I have been very fortunate in my life and career that people high above in the organisations I worked with, took a bet on me when I myself would have not done it. They coached and mentored me. They taught me frameworks and mental models which were so new to me that when I was introduced to them, I wasn’t even able to comprehend their impact on me.
At one such time, when I had recently started my career, I got a change in my manager. My new manager had not come from a conventional product company. Yet, he was experienced in stakeholder management which was the demand from the role. He knew great processes which I didn’t appreciate at that time, because of my inexperience. I understand them now better because of the context and having learnt the hard way.
At the same organisation, I had a mentor, who was far more senior to both me and my manager. To this date, I believe she agreed to coach me because I was naive enough to ask.
I and my mentor used to meet once a month. This time when we met, the hot topic (for me) was the new manager. I complained about things that were inconsequential then and are inconsequential now. At the end of my 10 minutes rant, my mentor said, “Ankur, in the United States, whenever a new president comes, along with him, also comes First Lady. One of the first things, many of the First Ladies do is that they change the carpets and curtains of The White House.*^ That does not mean that the carpets and curtains chosen by the previous First Lady or President were wrong. It’s just that changing them is the most convenient way to believe that we are leaving our legacy at The White House. But what most people including the legacy makers miss is that changing carpets and curtains only leaves a stamp, an imprint. Legacy is created after that.”
Since then, anytime I have become a new manager, I have tried hard to learn the historical context before changing any “carpet or curtain”.
What I have learnt is that it takes a great deal of discipline and expectation setting with your manager to be successful at this.
At times, we succumb to “This is how I got here” syndrome, especially when the stakes are high and we want to show some quick wins early in the job.
