Strategy and influence
Leading Change
4 lessons · ~25 min total
01
Change fails at the habit, not the announcement
~6 minTreat the announcement as the start line: change lands where the old habit fires, and the dip comes before the gain.
Key takeaways
- Agreement is an opinion; behavior is a habit: change lands at the workflow moment where the old habit fires.
- Forecast the J-curve out loud, with depth and duration: a predicted dip is a milestone, an unpredicted one kills the change.
- Re-announcing is not installing: rebuild the moment, not the message.
02
Resistance is information
~7 minRead whether resistance is loss, competence fear, or honest disagreement, and answer each with what it actually needs.
Key takeaways
- Resistance bundles three things: loss, competence fear, and honest disagreement, and each needs a different answer.
- Loss wants acknowledgment and a bridge; fear wants private practice space; disagreement wants a hearing that can change the plan.
- The senior who resists new tooling is often protecting hard-won mastery: build them a bridge that carries their standing across.
03
Design the transition, not the end state
~6 minPlan the middle of the change: defaults over exhortation, waves over big bang, and an end date for the old way.
Key takeaways
- The middle of a change is the thing you manage: both ways exist, nobody is fluent, and deadlines whisper revert.
- Defaults beat exhortation: build the new way into the path and make the old way cost an extra step.
- Keep the old path through the transition, but announce its end date on day one: parallel-forever is where changes die.
04
Make it stick: from initiative to default
~6 minMeasure behavior instead of ceremony, feed the reinforcement loops, and manage the team's total change budget.
Key takeaways
- Measure behavior, not ceremony: audit the artifact trail for a shadow process under the dashboard.
- What gets reviewed, celebrated, and rewarded either feeds a change or starves it.
- Change capacity is a budget: initiatives queue, zombies get honest funerals, and done means newcomers learn it as the default.
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Team Health & Morale
A usually vocal teammate has gone quiet in meetings for two weeks, and their camera stays off. In your next 1:1, what is your opening move?
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