Shrinking the change reduces fear

One of the most daunting challenges to overcome in catalyzing change is the tendency to see the entire scope of the change is impossible, which paralyzes the fear-stricken Elephant. Overcoming this challenge requires reducing the amount of change as much as possible to initiate forward progress.

People find it more motivating to be partly finished with a longer journey than to be at the starting gate of a shorter one… One way to motivate action, then, is to make people feel as though they’re already closer to the finish line than they might have thought.^[1]

It is important to understand that this can feel exceedingly counterintuitive.

A business cliché commands us to “raise the bar.” But that’s exactly the wrong instinct if you want to motivate a reluctant Elephant. You need to lower the bar. Picture taking a high-jump bar and lowering it so far that it can be stepped over. If you want a reluctant Elephant to get moving, you need to shrink the change .^[2]

#change-management

Motivating the Elephant:

• Find the Feeling
• Shrink the Change
• Grow Your People