Effort-Results Gap

With this post I have one question to ask you: why is change hard? Why?

You may have answers or ideas that immediately come to mind, but did you know that part of what makes change hard is the mental work we have to do to navigate it?

Change is hard because our brains have to transition from having felt secure in our understanding of what was, to now needing to process and accept what has changed. This transition in thinking can be really difficult to navigate. Now imagine the difficulty of that transition happening within the minds of every single person on your team - change can feel impossible when compounded by dozens of people needing to find their way through it. Examples of this in the context of your company could be any number of things: you may be going through a rebrand, new leadership may come in with a new vision or company direction, etc. One of the things I hear often from those I work with is “how do we get through it?” I’ve found that people don’t often fear what’s changing, they often fear how that change will impact everything else around them. The effort-results gap is a tool that helps us better understand how to navigate the conflict of change and manage the timeline of change adoption.

When major change is first implemented, it's important to acknowledge what's true: it will take time for all of your people (customers, employees, etc.) to accept or to adopt what has changed. We often expect the results of our effort to be immediate, when in reality it takes time. How much time? There's no set answer for that. So, how do we make the timeline shorter?

First, be mindful and encourage others of why the change matters. Commit to that conviction.

Second, find within yourself the stamina necessary to endure managing the change.

Third, be resilient to all obstacles that are opposing the change. Be sure to do this in a manner that is empathetic and understanding. If you have an employee who doesn’t agree with the new direction for your company, engage them in a conversation about it and find out why.

Lastly: communicate. Regardless of what’s changing, if we want others to adopt the change as something important and worth doing, then we need to prioritize communication around it: balancing our desire to talk about it with an equal commitment to listening to the feedback, feelings, and thoughts of others.

Navigating change is always a difficult process, but you can find your culture healthier on the other side of it if you commit to the rhythm of the above steps.