Teaching Elephants to Dance

In his book Teaching the Elephant to Dance, James Belasco describes how trainers shackle young elephants with heavy chains to deeply embedded stakes. In that way the elephant learns to stay in its place. Older, powerful elephants never try to leave—even though they have the strength to pull the stake and walk away. Their conditioning has limited their movements. With only a small metal bracelet around their foot attached to nothing, they stand in place. The stakes are actually gone!

Like powerful elephants, many companies and people are bound by earlier conditioned restraints. The statement "We have always done it this way" is as limiting to an organization's progress as the unattached chain around an elephant's foot.

Yet when the circus tent catches on fire and the elephant sees the flames and smells the smoke, it forgets its old conditioning and runs for its life.

Adapted from Hans Finzel, Change Is Like a Slinky: 30 strategies for promoting and surviving change in your organization