We have all seen desire paths. Indeed, we have probably all contributed to them. These are the shortcuts and walkarounds that we take when convenience supersedes the architect or town planner's aesthetically pleasing routes and pathways, that are designed in offices and on paper. The difference is the lived reality and perspective of the people that use them. Day in. Day out.
Perhaps the ultimate example of desire paths is expressed by the layout of the ‘Oval’, the centre of student life at Ohio State University. As students made their way from building to building across the Oval lawn, they left a trail over time. These are not random acts to rebel against the ‘keep off the grass’ message - they are desire paths. They track the most convenient and regularly travelled routes that students take.
Ohio State/ Geekswipe.net
The difference for Ohio State was that the plan was to not have a plan for the paths. It was only once the desire paths were established that the university had them paved. The result is stunning. Even the best-planned walkways would be inferior to the ones chosen organically by students.
Ohio State/Geekswipe.net
There are desire paths in your organisation.
There are individuals or groups/teams of people in your school or business who are bypassing policy, creating shortcuts around process and finding more desirable routes – for convenience, for speed or often because the original design doesn’t work for the people who actually have to use it.
So, what does this mean for us as leaders?
Desire paths are everywhere. Whether it is cutting and pasting reports; ignoring a feedback policy designed in a senior leaders office that works for some but not for all; checking your emails in a meeting or letting the student off the ‘remove’ part of the behaviour policy as it means a phone call home that won’t be quick or pleasant. Desire paths exist and as leaders we know they exist. We may even create our own at times. The crucial factor for leaders is what do we choose to do about it. Ignore, challenge or embrace.
To ignore is dangerous. The often quoted but anonymously original sourced ‘you promote what you permit’ is relevant here. If consistency, coherence and communication are the holy grail of smoothly meandering across the organisational landscape to link vision to strategy to action – then to ignore is the antipathy of this.
To challenge may be appropriate. There may be very good reasons why an architect designs paths in a particular way. Aesthetics, project goals or design choice. Similarly, in our organisations we may have very good strategic reasons for designing our policies and processes in a particular way. It may be that our core purpose requires a particular system and it is necessary to clearly communicate the reasoning and share the big picture to ensure compliance.
Where the design process is through a narrow lens: top down, lacking inclusivity or cognitive diversity, the desire paths are likely to appear more quickly, be more embedded and have greater use by a wider audience. Regardless of how inclusive the design process is, as the development becomes embedded it will be open to interpretation and differences in application driven by the furniture of unintended consequences.
To embrace is courageous. Due to the circumstances described above embracing the desire paths may be the best option. Similarly, when thinking about change, for leaders it is often advisable to listen more than you speak and this is no exception. Whether, new to leadership or a school or well established within your organisation, finding out why desire paths exist or gauging the feeling about current systems is crucial.
In ‘Reduce Change to Increase Improvement’, Viviane Robinson, highlights the importance of ‘engage don’t bypass’, particularly when implementing a change strategy.
“a change strategy that bypasses the theories in current practice risks ignorance of the conditions that are critical to its success.”
It may well be that the theories in current practice, what exists on the ground rather than on paper in a handbook or policy, is the glue that holds a process together, the breathing space that enables staff wellbeing or the shortcut that secures efficiency. The courageous move here is to engage - find out if this can be scaled up, applied everywhere and made the process or policy for the benefit of all – and if it can, embrace it!
So whether you are reviewing current conditions or wanting to implement change here is the challenge:
· Where are the procedural desire paths in your school, department or phase? The aspects of policy or process that leaders articulate as consistent but the reality is anything but, either moulded over time by interpretation or perhaps ignored from the get-go by professionals who have ‘always done it’ in a different way.
· What are you going to do about it? Ignore, challenge or embrace?
The crucial aspect here is that we are conscious and deliberate in our choice. To ignore or to choose not to notice is still a choice. To often we see leaders who maintain the status quo where they portray a pretence of consistency and compliance. Meanwhile, competent, conscientious professionals find ways around the rhetoric to make it work, nervously hoping they won’t get caught out, or less scrupulous staff do what they want knowing that no-one is checking in, to the frustration of those who are being potentially inconvenienced by compliance. So, can we be proactive in making a positive choice to find out and then challenge through explanation or embrace for the good of all? They did at Ohio State; planning for, engaging and embracing the desire paths to achieve results that are both beautiful and beneficial to all.
By Jay Davenport @jaydav20
Director of The Meraki Spark www.themerakispark.com jay@themerakispark.com @MerakiJay