Lesson Learned:  "CAVE" People

Watch out for "CAVE" people¹

In the Design for Lean Six Sigma management training, Air Academy  Associates’ President Mark Kiemele  indicated that there are three basic populations when organizations deal with change:  Pioneers, Settlers and CAVE people .  Pioneers are often a small population where training alone is enough to empower them to adopt new initiatives.  Settlers represent the largest and most significant population where training alone will not empower them. Settlers can also be characterized as “sitting on the fence” waiting to be convinced.  The third population is known as CAVE people.  The acronym CAVE stands for “Citizens Against Virtually Everything.”  These are the people who criticize anything new or different, even if it is a better way to do things.  They want to keep things the way they always have been, do not want to rock the boat and typically do not accept a new ways of thinking.  Fortunately CAVE people represent a small portion of the general population but they can have a significant negative impact. 

Like any large corporation, Xerox had their share of CAVE people .  At first, we listened to what they had to say.  Often, some of the questions they asked and points they brought up were valid and needed to be addressed.  One by one, we would sort through the comments and concerns and find ways to fix issues they brought up or put their comments aside.  At some point however, companies need to “seal up the cave” and not let CAVE people out to “pollute” the Settlers pool.  This can be done in a number of ways ranging from transferring them to other assignments to outright dismissal.  The more Design for Lean Six Sigma becomes the way groups work and the accepted group norm, the more uncomfortable the CAVE people become.  Eventually, CAVE people will either move on as they find the environment difficult to work in or they will huddle in their dark, damp caves alone.

¹Norman E. Fowler, “Lessons Learned from an Unconventional Design for Lean Six Sigma Deployment”, Morrisville, NC, Lulu Press Inc., 2008.

 

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