I believe skimming stones holds the answer

I was skimming stones with my sons this weekend, down in Gippsland.

Truly, no-one is worse at this than me.

It’s sunny, and cold, and my kids are getting a minimum of 3 skips per pebble.

Mine are all sinking.

And creating a ripple. The bigger the stone, the bigger the ripple.

I know for you skimming experts, this is obvious. 

But it made me think – maybe this is WHY I believe there’s more impact from the middle out.

“A ripple effect occurs when an initial disturbance to a system propagates outward to disturb an increasingly larger portion of the system, like ripples expanding across the water when an object is dropped into it.” (wikipedia)

In culture, communications and change, we place a lot of emphasis on the cascade effect that comes from top leadership. But the ripple effect is just as powerful, and it lingers longer.

Middle managers disturb an increasingly larger portion of the system.

We just need bigger stones.

So, yeah. Science.

PS: if I’m a 1/10 at skimming stones, what’s your score?

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Rebecca is Australia’s pre-eminent advocate for B-suite leadership – the expert in developing hi-impact B-Suite leadership at both a team and individual level.

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