Why You Must Clean Your Office Before Changing The World

Another post in the “how to change the world” series.

This post is part of a continuing series about how to change the world, starting with you. To read the series, start here.

The most difficult part of change has nothing to do with technology, methods, what to do, or how to do it. It all comes back to the people. Change initiatives live or die based on our success in getting people to change. The same is true for modernizing the legal industry, consulting, professional services, or our approach to work in general.

To get you started, I asked you to perform a simple task — one that you were asked to do countless times when you were a child. Clean your personal space. As an adult, that space is your office and as a child it was your room.

There comes a time when even the “good” (their description, not mine) children push back at cleaning their room. Usually, it is at the end of a long day playing in that room during which they took out everything they owned. The room is covered with toys, clothes, books, and miscellaneous “what is that”. The task is overwhelming, the child goes into meltdown, and the ensuing battle takes longer than the time allotted to clean the room.

I am sure your colleagues did not have to deal with your meltdown. As adults, we break into roughly two groups. The first group includes those who clean their office, whether it is daily, weekly or once a year they perform the task. The second, of course, includes those who do not clean their office. They may take out the trash, but cleaning is not on the priority list.

The First Rule Of Change Management

Write this down and put it in a safe place: work with those in the first group and move past those in the second group. That advice seems harsh, not very team-like, and somehow vaguely NPC (not politically correct). Right on all counts. But, if you spend time with that second group, it will kill your change effort. That group, even small, can defeat your best efforts.

Take solace in the fact that some — a few — will change groups. They will get with the program and start cleaning their office. The remainder of the second group will find themselves isolated and most will move on to messier pastures. Let them go and send them off with best wishes. You are changing things not running a halfway house for those who don’t want to change.

Now we can focus on that first group. They are willing to keep their office clean (and by they, I mean you). How do you do that simple task? Again, we will call on your mother. She told you to clean your room every day. At the end of the day, before you go to bed, put away the things you took out during the day. You will start the next day with a clean room and a sunny outlook on life.

Good advice, but let’s add some lean thinking to it. Start with defining a place for everything that needs to be in your office. If everything has a place, it is easier to put it in its place. The next story is not for those who have an inability to control the “you gotta be kidding me” reflex, so skip over it if you must.

As an early student of lean thinking, I was learning the importance of “clean your room and keep it clean” (note to formalists: this is 5S). My sensei would come to my office when he visited our plant. It was his first stop. He wanted to see that I lived lean. He was looking for an immaculate office with a place for everything and everything in its place.

Let me put some meat on those bones. My desk had a computer (desktop in those days), a stapler, an inbox, and a pencil cup. For each, I had a tape outline on the desk top a little bigger than the item. The silhouette told me what item went in the outline (can’t put a rectangular stapler in a round pencil cup spot).

Note the use of tape strips rather than full outlines in the picture. That approach uses less tape, though it is hard to tell what goes by the tape without further guidance (mouse or cellphone?). Also note the lack of waste in writing instruments: one highlighter, one pen, one pencil. You don’t use two pens at a time, do you?

What about my desk drawers? Well, they should have looked like this:

That drawer setup is called a “shadowbox” or “French cut out” (make sure you put “tool drawer” before “French cut out” if you do a Google search, otherwise you get some risqué pictures).

Now you think I have gone over the top, but the point is simple: without a system keeping your office clean will be a chore. With a system, it becomes a habit that recedes into the background. I am not asking you to go to the extreme you see in the pictures. I am suggesting that you put some thought into how you will stay organized.

If you struggle to find a spot for something, ask some questions. How often do I use it? Am I the only one who uses it, or is it a shared resource? In what way do I use it and can I eliminate the step that requires it? The goal is to find a way to eliminate the item. If you do not need the tool, you do not need to find a spot to store it.

The First Step Is The Hardest

Cleaning and keeping clean a small space, such as an office, is a straightforward task. Yet, it is one of the most difficult challenges for those who have not formed a “clean office” habit. We start with this task because it lays the foundation for what will follow.

Have some fun with it. Award prizes: “most improved office,” “cleanest office,” “most organized office”. Change does not have to be a fun killer. Share best practices. Offer tips to those who are struggling.

A note for those of you who think you can hide behind science. “Messy offices spur creativity,” you have read. Aha! You have an excuse for your office: “I’m the creative type, this helps me create.” Fine, do this. Set aside space in your office or, better yet, in a common area. Allow that to be the messy space where you go to create (we can cover this in design thinking). Your office remains that place where you turn out work efficiently.

One final bit of advice. Some among you will still have a messy office. For the colleagues of those who still have messy offices, remember this maxim of lean: we don’t blame the person, we recognize that the process needs improving. Work with the person who has a messy office to dig into “why” their office is still messy. There is much more for us to cover, but it all begins with you.

If you enjoyed reading this article, please recommend (click the heart) and share it to help others find it!

About: Ken is a speaker and author on innovation, leadership, and on the future of people, process, and technology. On Medium, he is a “Top 50” author on innovation, leadership, and artificial intelligence. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, and follow him on Facebook.