An excerpt from Chapter 15 of Change is Good…You Go First:
Like the gardener, the effective leader recognizes that change takes time to take root. And pulling up the "roots" before the process has matured is a sure way to confuse people, and destroy what has been started. There is a story about a Japanese executive who stressed the need for patience and discipline when it comes to quality.
"Sometimes," he said, "the quality process is like farming bamboo. Once the bamboo seed is planted, the farmer waters it every day. He does that for 4 years before the tree even breaks ground. But, when it finally does, it grows 60 feet in the next 90 days."
This story reminds us that change, like quality, will need time to "take root" before the full benefits are realized.