The Change Catalyst

Chapter 24Teaching People to Walk in the Rain

As a young teenager, my son's favourite television show was Mythbusters; a cool, science-based programme from the US featuring a trio of hip young science grads and a couple of mad experienced guys conducting scientific experiments that almost inevitably ended with blowing something up in a spectacular fashion.

One episode sticks in my mind; the episode where they set out to prove or bust the myth that you get wetter if you run in the rain.

To do this, the Mythbusters team set up a row of ceiling sprinklers in an empty warehouse. One of the team donned a dry pair of blue cotton overalls and proceeded to walk from one end of the warehouse to the other through the simulated rain. Once he cleared the sprinklers, he stripped off the overalls and placed them in a dry and empty bin to be weighed. He then donned another identical pair of blue cotton overalls and repeated the exercise, but this time he ran the length of the warehouse through the man-made rain shower. He placed this second pair of wet overalls into an identical dry, empty bin to be weighed.

The result? The second pair of overalls contained more water than the first! He absorbed more water by running through the rain than by walking through it. This is completely counter-intuitive. We all run when it's raining – to minimise the time in the rain as much as possible. It's just common sense. But it's wrong.

That's what culture change is – teaching people to walk in the rain. ...