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We Have Decades Of Research Telling Us How Change Works. We Need To Start Following The Evidence
Jennifer was a rising star when her boss tapped her to lead a transformational initiative. She was told that it was a “burning platform” moment and her success was absolutely crucial to the future of the organization. She could set her own budget, choose her own team and would have full executive support to move forward and scale quickly.
Jennifer wasted no time. She hired an outside firm to help her craft an emotive message to create awareness for the initiative as well as a sense of urgency around the need for change. She designed a training program to help employees adapt to and embrace the transformation. In six weeks the project launched with a huge kickoff meeting.
Initially, it seemed to be an enormous success. But soon Jennifer noticed the excitement fizzling out and, about eight months into it she realized that she was being actively undermined. Executive support diminished, the project was abandoned and her career was derailed. It all could have been avoided if she had taken an evidence-based approach.
1. Transformational ideas Come From Outside The Community And Incur Resistance
We tend to think of transformation as a journey to some alternative future state, but that’s only half of the story. The underlying truth is change always involves a strategic conflict between that future state and the status quo, which always has inertia on its side and never yields its power gracefully. For change to take hold, the status quo must be addressed.
As Everett Rogers noted in his seminal Diffusion of Innovations, from the earliest studies on the spread of innovations like hybrid corn and tetracycline in the mid 20th century, transformational ideas tend to first take hold with people who have ties and interests outside the immediate community and incur resistance which must be overcome.
Jennifer’s rush to launch a big kickoff meeting worked against her. It may have created some excitement and buzz, but it also triggered those vehemently opposed to the idea, who quietly began campaigning against it. Unfortunately, in her haste to get things moving, she didn’t notice the opposition until it…
