Three Reasons Your Change Project Isn’t Going Like You Thought It Would, Part 3

In Atomic Habits, James Clear writes, “We don’t rise to the level of our goals, but fall to the level of our systems.” Sometimes the change we are able to affect in our organizations is limited to the systems that are currently operating in our organization.

 If we are dependent on volunteers to serve more clients, but our volunteer management system is broken, and so our volunteers don’t come back – then we can say, “Serve more clients,” all we want, but, until we address the system, the goal is just a dream. 

In change management, and specifically in strategic planning, people get so excited about the possibilities and big dreamy goals that they don’t address the limits of their systems.

System limits can consist of broken processes, limited staff or technological capacity, and physical space.  As we consider change projects, we don’t have to limit the change to the capacity of our systems – we just have to ask different questions:

• Given the limit of “X” system, how do we serve more clients?

• What would need to change with “Y” system to allow us to accomplish this necessary change?

• What internal or external systems impact the change we want to make?

Ideally, we are asking those questions at the beginning of any change management process, and the process is helping us uncover insights that in order make change ABC, we need to make sure we address XYZ.

This leads to a very important point: change is a process.

It's not a whim or a feeling. It takes curiosity, engagement, listening, observing, risk, and patience. If we can approach all change management with that in mind, we are better prepared to address any friction or resistance to change that comes from fear, culture, and systems.

Click on the links here if you want to take a look back at what we covered in Part 1 and Part 2.