In my new role, I have to think a great deal about the impact of trying to improve (or change) something. It’s not something I take lightly. It occurred to me this week that there's a big difference between subtractive and additive change. Subtractive
I like the idea of substractive, for example: careful practicing of minimalistic life styles would make our life lot more lighter - that includes our thoughts
There is a proven cognitive bias at work here, that when presented with a situation, process, idea, object etc. that requires improvement people tend to come up with additive rather than subtractive solutions. There’s was a really interesting paper published on it Nature back in 2021 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03380-y
I really like the analogy of pruning in terms of its role in growth.
I think typical incentive structures at organizations more easily reward additive changes over subtractive changes. Additive changes are seen, subtractive changes are felt. As a result, we naturally bias towards the visible and apparent... and worse, performative changes.
A balanced plate of the two feels like the right aspiration to work with, especially for leaders who *should* be able to look past the optics.
When you say, "admitting OKRs aren't working..." do you mean some particular metrics?
This is such a beautiful piece that no one talks about often John. Sharing with my product and design team.
I like the idea of substractive, for example: careful practicing of minimalistic life styles would make our life lot more lighter - that includes our thoughts
It's like earning more money and finding yourself adding new useless stuff into your house (and into your life).
Such a simple realization that often "less is more" and yet with such a profound impact. John, you just blew my mind with this one.
There is a proven cognitive bias at work here, that when presented with a situation, process, idea, object etc. that requires improvement people tend to come up with additive rather than subtractive solutions. There’s was a really interesting paper published on it Nature back in 2021 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03380-y
There's some research which backs this: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/04/brains-prefer-adding-sustainability/
Also, not sure if you saw Bob Sutton's brilliant article talking about similar themes: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bosses-staff-employees-less-work-11663790432
Love it. We do seem to have a neurological blindspot to subtractive change. The best part is no part. The best step is no step.
I really like the analogy of pruning in terms of its role in growth.
I think typical incentive structures at organizations more easily reward additive changes over subtractive changes. Additive changes are seen, subtractive changes are felt. As a result, we naturally bias towards the visible and apparent... and worse, performative changes.
A balanced plate of the two feels like the right aspiration to work with, especially for leaders who *should* be able to look past the optics.