The Formula for Organizational Change

When I coach congregational leaders, I’m often asked, “Why is it so hard to change our organization?” Over time, I’ve boiled my answer down to a fairly simple formula for organizational change. The formula has three parts – all of which need to be in action at the same time.

1. The momentum propelling the organization in its direction is designed to resist change.
   
   Newton’s First Law of Motion states that a body in motion will remain in motion unless acted on by a greater outside force. Organizational systems are the same way. The first part of the formula recognizes that organizational momentum is real. The organization has a direction. If you want to change that direction, you have to build a greater force than the force already at work in the organization. 

2. Building the greater force necessary to bring organizational change requires staff/people that are empowered to change the organizational direction.
   
   Organizational systems design themselves to empower those who want to maintain the motion, not those who want to change it. The only way to exert a greater force that will change organizational momentum is to empower people in new ways. Keep the same rules. Keep the same structure. The organization keeps the same momentum. 

3. The greater force necessary to overcome organizational momentum requires consistent and constant action in the new direction.
   
   Organizational change requires relentless forward action toward the desired outcome over a long period of time. Organizations don’t change overnight. Rules within the system are designed to help the organization keep moving in the same direction. Hard decisions to support the new direction have to be made. Some people will be lost in the directional change. Any misstep or compromise weakens and reduces the outside force necessary to overcome the existing organizational momentum.

I’ve led organizational change. I’ve coached others who have led organizational change. Here’s the formula for organizational change.

Empowered people with the will to move toward the desired change 

+  Constant consistent action toward the desired change 

= the greater force necessary to change the current organizational momentum. 

The formula doesn’t seem terribly difficult does it? Until you try put into practice, that is.  See if this doesn’t sound familiar.

People who speak up for change are shouted down or viewed as exceeding their authority/power. Compromise - the enemy of consistent constant action because it leads to timeouts and side roads – is offered up as progress again and again. Each time either of those things happens, the greater force necessary to overcome existing momentum is reduced until that greater force is gone and the current organizational momentum rolls on. 

That’s why organizational change doesn’t happen very often. The formula is pretty clear. Living it out to an effective change is really hard.