Sometimes it’s better just to rip off the bandaid

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 Malta, being a former British colony, drives on the left side of the road. Even as a passenger (who has a tough time remembering not to try to get into the driver’s seat on the right side of the car), I found car and bus trips there unnerving, especially the roundabouts. Entering them, I feel clueless.

I’ve driven twice before in countries that drive on the left - Australia and New Zealand. I suspect I am still banned from renting a car in both. 

When my son Brady was working in Wellington, I flew over to visit him for a couple weeks. I flew into Auckland on the northern tip of the North Island, met him, rented a car, and took a leisurely drive south, down through Rotorua, winding up in Wellington on the southernmost tip of the North Island. I am guessing Brady still has nightmares about my driving. “Dad! You are way too close to the edge of the road! Watch out for traffic from the left! Slow down!” We did survive and did not damage the rental car.

Whenever I am in a country that drives on the left, I am reminded of a story told to me by a fellow ARAMCO employee back in the 1980’s. He was a Brit and had worked (military or police, as I remember) in an African country that was becoming self-governing after colonial rule. As a symbol of their newly achieved independence, the leaders chose to change from left hand drive to right hand drive. 

But to do so gradually.

On the first week, cars would start driving on the right.
On the second week, trucks would start driving on the right.
On the third week, bicycles etc…

I could find no verification of this happening in a relatively short Google search, although I found many countries did change from left to right after colonial rule ended. So this story may well have been just a rude, rather racist joke about the ability to self-rule. 

But it does seem to offer a lesson that some changes are best made all at once, not gradually. Changing large tech systems like student information systems, email applications, etc. were best done all in one fell swoop. Chaos often erupted, but it usually died down in a week or so. Should the change have been made over the course of weeks, the chaos, I’m sure, would have lasted much, much longer.

Rip the bandaid off - it’s less painful in the long run.