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When Growth Is Diffi cult

formula exists to tell you how many days, weeks, months, or quarters
it will take for your new behaviors to become precedents in the crystal
around you. Indeed, you would be wise to be suspicious of such a for-
mula if it were presented. So many variables are at play—what you do,
how consistently you do it, how receptive your coworkers are, what
other changes are happening around you, what it would take for you
to perceive a change, and so on—that there can be no single meaning-
ful answer to how long it will take, other than “It depends.”
Besides, while the question of the time involved is tempting to ask,
you must admit that it’s a lot like asking, “How much exercise must I

do before I’m fit and I can stop?” Emma (my supervisor from Chap-
ter 1) did not set out early in her career to create an environment that
would allow one of her employees to solve a specifi c problem years
later and then stop after it happened! She consistently practiced the
disciplines of overtness and clarity, so that she and her team were well
positioned for challenges as they arose.
Building a cultural crystal is not a project with an end date but a
process you keep practicing for your own good as much as for the
good of your environment.

Troubleshooting Interactions
“That’s fi ne,” you may be saying. “I can work on my own habits all
day long, but my biggest problem isn’t going to be me. My biggest
problem is someone else!” At this point, you utter the name of the most
problematic, thorny, diffi cult person in your workplace, and you say it
with the biggest scowl and most negative intonation you can muster.
So-and-so is a thorn in your side, and he or she will be a problem.
Because much of the training in my consulting practice focuses
on optimizing information transfer, I often ask session participants
to discuss in general terms someone who is driving them crazy at
work. Poor communication equals poor information transfer, and
these troublesome people are our real-life case studies. It’s a great
topic to bring up when a group’s energy is low; I have never found a
question that leads to livelier conversation. Everyone seems to have at

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