Power of small wins for successful change management
How to reinforce change by celebrating successes
When there is a daunting mountain to climb, it is often best to break it into molehills.
Large change management problems are best broken down into smaller ones with concrete achievable goals. Otherwise it can be so overwhelming that solutions seem unattainable – therefore, people often avoid tackling them or come up with single, grand programs that fail.
Breaking such problems down into a series of more modest steps
Breaking such problems down into a series of more modest steps, all on the path to the ultimate goal, reduces fear, clarifies direction, and increases the probability of early successful outcomes – boosting support for further action.
Small wins can have a huge impact on changing organizational culture
It is critical for teams and individuals working on complex problems to achieve small wins regularly. Because setbacks are so common in truly important problems, people become disheartened unless they can point to some meaningful advance most days, even if that advance is seemingly minor, and even if it involves nothing more than extracting insights from the day’s failures.
Organizational change – The whales versus dolphins concept
The “whales vs. dolphins” concept involves dividing large projects into a series of short steps or phases – similar to how dolphins breathe. Each step delivers quantifiable benefits and recognizes success.
Change management and the power of small wins. Initiate the right small change to trigger a bigger change. Create small wins to garner support.
Short term wins are serving four important purposes
- Wins provide feedback to change leaders about the validity of their visions and strategies
- Wins give those working hard to achieve a vision a pat on the back, an emotional uplift
- Wins build faith in the effort, attracting those who are not yet actively helping
- Wins take power away from cynics
This strategy propels long-term goal achievement. In his book, “Good Boss, Bad Boss”, Stanford University professor Bob Suttonargues that:
Big, hairy, audacious, goals are not only daunting, but they are usually too obvious and too broad to provide useful guidance for day-to-day work
Similarly, author Peter Sims emphasizes the importance of incremental goal-setting in “Little Bets”.
Empower employees to act on the change as soon as possible and reward short term wins in order to celebrate changes and apply positive reinforcement
Many companies will go through some considerable change effort in its life
Everyone wants to be a winner but the reality is that in the competitive world of business, almost all, if not every, company will go through some considerable change effort in its life.
However even when times are tough and the proverbial has well and truly hit the fan, and losing seems the constant outcome, its then that feeling like a winner can make a material difference to the bottom line. One last remark: If you want something to grow, don’t forget to pour champagne on it.
Change management and the power of small wins – Takline celebrating a good fiscal year
The power of small wins on changing organizational culture – Verdo Tele celebrating 40% in market share
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I like your incremental approach. I have been serving my clients in a similar manner. People want to join something that is working. Incremental wins onboard more and more people with each positve announement.