Act Sooner, Reach Higher

The first fifty times you say something people won’t hear you. The second fifty times you say it, they won’t understand. And the third fifty times they won’t believe you. If you want to affect real systemic change you need to repeat your message over and over and over. That’s just the first part. If you want the change to stick, you need to remove the ‘blockers’ – those naysayers, cynics and the coalition of the unwilling. John Kotter says the same thing – if you think you can co-opt the unwilling, you’re wrong. If you think you just need to get them “vested in the process,” you’re wrong. Get them out of the way instead. And finally it takes passion. Passion like you read about – the kind that is fun, enduring, serious, committed, connected, intense!

Michael Hammer’s group interviewed a group of highly successful companies that had undergone successful massive change initiatives and they said two things that may surprise you. That they should have been even more ambitious and they should have acted sooner. That is, knowing what they know having been through the process, they could have reached and achieved even higher goals.