Driving Change
How driving the wrong way can teach us about adjusting to changes.
I’ve had my driving licence for 17 years, yet I almost entered a roundabout the wrong way. It wasn't alcohol, it wasn't sleep deprivation, it was Ireland.
Last week, I experienced switching from driving on the right side of the road to the left side. In this article I'll explain how it teaches change management.
Ireland and the other LHT (left-hand traffic) countries aren't driving the wrong way, it is just different.
Lessons / Steps
Start Small
As I approached the car and wanted to enter, I instinctively went over to the passenger’s side instead of the driver's side. It's all flipped inside, except for the pedals, thankfully.
I had made it easier for myself by picking an automatic car. I recommend this approach for first-timers on a different side.
Takeaway: When implementing changes, make it incremental if you can, so it’s easier to control. For example, instead of changing the whole technology stack, start with one component of it.
Set Reminders
The airport in Dublin has impressive infrastructure for car rental companies and the car parks are the biggest I’ve ever seen. Reminders to "drive left" and "keep the left side" are everywhere, from stickers on the car windscreen to signs on the roads. I can imagine these are as helpful to other tourists as they were to me.
Takeaway: Make sure to frequently communicate change as one reminder is not enough. Put the information everywhere you can.
Follow
I wasn’t sure if I was up to the challenge of switching sides. What convinced me to rent a car was: "I'll just do what others are doing and we'll be fine". And yes, following other cars on complicated crossings helped a lot. However, I did end up entering the car park exit the wrong way when there was no one to follow.
I tried to remind myself every time the road was empty with no reference points — “Am I keeping left?”
Takeaway: If you want to change, find people who succeeded in changing and follow. Find people who are doing what you are aiming for. When leading and introducing the change, find early adopters and work with them closely, so others can follow them.
Repeat
It was difficult for the first few hours of driving, but then my brain got used to it. I only had problems with it at the start of a new day or after a long break. Exiting car parks needed focus. A few times, I tried to leave through an entry gate, and I was surprised there was no slot for the parking tickets.
A persistent and undefeated issue was the rear-view mirror, I was forever searching for it up and to the right instead of the left.
Takeaway: At some point changes become the new normal state. Our brain follows a new way of operating. It just requires time and repetition.
Summary
Ireland has many narrow roads, especially in the countryside. Driving on a different side was challenging and I drove almost 1,000km over three days. It was scary at the beginning, but then it was fun to change perspective. It felt rewarding to see many beautiful places, and the car gave us freedom to stop anywhere we wanted.
When implementing changes be sure to:
Start small, if it does’t need to be radical, make it iterative
Set reminders, communicate frequently
Follow people who already transitioned, focus on early adopters
Repeat the behaviour until it becomes the default one
Thanks for reading,
— Michał
P.S. The majority of the world's countries and population drive RHT (right-hand traffic) — However, as I'm right-handed it felt solid to keep the dominant hand on the steering wheel as the other can switch gears or do some control adjustments.
Post Notes
Lessons from one of the biggest changes I had to implement:
Discover Weekly — Shoutouts
Articles that might help you explore new perspectives, which I’ve read recently:
"How I Learned To Communicate Clearly" by
"Framework to land $500k+ Software Engineer Job without Leetcoding" by
I nas in England & Scotland this summer - if you're still there, be careful when you've mastered it enough to relax and drop down your guard. That's when you start making the really dangerous mistakes, for me it was about a week in (luckily my wife was my trusty copilot and warned me before anything bad happened).
Great read! Particularly resonates, because I was a couple of days before you visiting Ireland and went to Cliffs of Moher as well. I didn’t rent a car, but went with a group with the bus from Dublin!
And you seem to have had a really great weather. When I visited it was a bit more cloudy.