We Own What We Create

You might have heard me say that I'm not a big fan of one of 'The Case for Change,' one of the most common deliverables in any change management initiative.

To be fair, I have nothing against the document itself. I've written many of them. It's that I believe they are necessary but not sufficient in driving real change. Yes, having a broad description of why a project or transformation exists is important. It's important that we all understand the broad objectives we collectively seek to achieve.

It's just I have almost never seen this document inspire an individual to pursue greatness.  

Why, might you ask? Well, mostly because most people in the organization never had a hand in shaping the destination, let alone the goal itself. It was handed to them. Described as part of a broader strategy, which of course they play a role. But at the grass roots experience of the everyday employee, the distance between themselves and that goal can be vast. To explain this, seem my post from 9/19/23 where I talk about the intersection of our experience and ability to change.

Let’s play this out…

Change Leader: So, Michael…are we supposed to have a strategy defined by thousands of people? That's not practical and is too slow. If we have everyone define a goal it won't be cohesive and reflect everyone's individual interest.

Me: Well, of course that’s true.

Change Leader: We can connect the Case for Change to so people can see the ‘What’s-In-It-For-Me (WIIFM).’ When people understand the WIIFM they are aligned to the Case for Change.

Me: Well, kind of. You see…understanding how I might benefit is not the same as deciding it’s worth pursuing that benefit. The Case for Change and WIIFM miss two important aspects of human neuroscience.

First, who sets the goal we pursue matters. Like…a lot.

Second, how the goal is defined increases my ability to pursue it.

We know from research that when someone else sets a goal for me, I am less attached to the outcome. This has impacts on my motivation to begin, my ability to withstand stress, maintain performance through the messy middle of a project, and so on.

It also matters what kind of goal we are pursuing. There are Avoidance Goals, e.g., I want to avoid junk food, and there are Approach Goals, e.g., I want to live a healthy lifestyle. If you want a deep dive on this, listen to Dr. Maya Shankar on The Huberman Lab: https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/dr-maya-shankar-how-to-shape-your-identity-and-goals. It should go without saying that when we experience success in an Approach Goal scenario, we are far more likely to embed that experience as positive than we successfully ‘avoid’ an Avoidance Goal.

So, the next time you’re thinking about writing a Case for Change or a WIIFM remember that the most successful pursuits are the ones that we have defined for ourselves and that progress us towards a better version of ourselves.