The Popcorn Metaphor

After a long day at work, I decided to go home and relax with a good movie. I really enjoy watching movies at home from my couch, and at this time of year there’s something special about tucking in under a warm blanket to enjoy a good movie with the family. To complete the experience we needed…Popcorn.

Luckily, I had some microwave popcorn in my kitchen cupboard that I wanted to pop. I read the instructions carefully. “This side up”, “1500 W”, “3 to 5 minutes” and “stop the microwave when it doesn’t pop within an interval of three seconds”.

I placed the bag in the microwave and started to time the process. As the microwave started buzzing I could hear the first corns popping *pop!*, *pop!*, *pop-pop!* More popping followed and it escalated into a burst of pops that eventually rang out with a few corn popping randomly as the time ran out. I took the steaming hot popcorn out and went back to start the movie.

As always, the popcorn were eaten before the movie really got started, and at the bottom of the bowl I found quite a few pieces of unpopped corn. So I started to minutely lick and suck the salt of each unpopped corn. But as I was licking the stupid corn, the fact that they didn’t pop started to bug me.

Why didn’t they pop when I did exactly what it said in the instructions?

I went back to the kitchen to pop another round. This time I decided to allow the popping process to continue longer and “generate more compliance among the corns”. I extended the interval to five seconds but had to stop the process when the unpleasant smell of burned popcorns came out of the microwave. Defeated, I returned to the movie after sorting out the handful of early poppers that I had accidently burned.

After a while I found myself again facing the unpopped corn in the bottom of the bowl. Determined that this corn would not get the better of me, I decided to give the unpopped corn another go in the microwave, a special process. Nothing happened. I turned up the effect and smoke started to come out of the microwave. They just wouldn’t pop. Apparently, the preferred to burn instead of popping.

Thinking it must have had something to do with the specific bag of corn; I tried it again with several bags all with the same result: About 10% popped fast and easily, 80% popped in a bursting curve after a while, and the last 10% just wouldn’t pop.

By now, the rest of the family had finished the movie, and I made peace with the fact that at the bottom of every bowl of popcorn, you’ll find corn that just won’t pop. C’est la vie.

Pop and change

In our work with change efforts, this story (in different versions) has become a consistent metaphor describing the process of change. Studies show that the awareness, acceptance and implementation of most change processes actually progress much like the microwave popcorn in the story. In every change effort you will find people who understand and adapt to the change easily and readily, people who are neutral but can be won over and, finally, the people who will fight and resist the changes as much as possible. We call them green, yellow and red popcorns.

Throughout the years we have learned that the best practice is to appreciate the green corn that ”popped” early in the process, support them to pioneer the change and deliver fast and visible results that manifest the realism of the change effort for the rest of us.

Furthermore we have learned that we should put our focus on the big majority of people with facilitation of sensemaking dialogues and creative processes starting to bridge the gap. Doing this, we can work with the green “popcorn” to reach critical mass and anchor the change we want to see. Sooner or later the few red corn will either give in or give up.

What makes people pop?

The truth is that you can’t trick smart people to change, and all organizations is full of smart people.

But you can earn your right to make the transition together with them. To help yellow corn turn green, you need to help them figure out why the change is needed, what the future will look like, what the plan is and how he or she will be affected and involved.

By focusing on establishing awareness, we help people see the need for change and acknowledge that we are on a burning platform. By communicating a compelling vision, we can mobilize people – painting a clear picture of the outcome, and how we can benefit from the change. We need to present an engaging plan with very clear and practical first steps to tell people how and when their worlds are going to change and when they will receive the information, training and support they need. This will help people take the first steps and get ready to pop.

Henrik Challis

Taggar:  Change Agents, Change communication, change management, Change process, critical mass, Distribution curve