In the 1970s, economist Milton Friedman argued that the social responsibility of business was to maximize profits. Peter Drucker disagreed. He believed profit was essential, but not the purpose of a business.
According to Drucker, the purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.
That insight reframed how we think about business.
We now need a similar reframing for transformation.
If you speak to most leaders, the traditional response you get is that the purpose of transformation is to restructure the organization in some way (e.g. implement new systems, software, operating models or organizational charts).
This is the wrong way to frame any transformation initiative.
In my experience, the purpose of a transformation is to create believers.
People who see the change as the right thing to do. And are willing to actively contribute to making it a success.
This is not fancy word play. It is a fundamental principle for the initial success and stickiness of any changes we are trying to make in our organization.
You Can’t Mandate Genuine Transformation
Given that you are paying people’s salaries, you can try to drive change by mandate.
You can launch your campaign and work with consultants to create a playbook. You can mandate every department to have the new system implemented within a certain time period.
You can even track adoption on a dashboard, which will show you that you are making progress with the rollout.
It might feel like you are succeeding. But the real question is whether the change will stick and last?
This is because you can’t force people to care. If people don’t believe in what you are asking them to do, the work will not be done well and none of the changes will stick.
If people get even a small window of opportunity, they will go back to doing what they’ve always done.
When people believe, you have buy in with two essential ingredients:
- Positive Evaluation: People viewing your initiative as a good idea for the company and accepting it as legitimate.
- Active Participation: People willing to advocate for your initiative to others and actively contribute to its success.
This is how you create momentum. When people believe they will take action. This action will produce visible results that build credibility and legitimacy. These results will motivate others to positively view the transformation and join in.
Design For Buy-In, Not Compliance
Here’s the trap I see all the time. Company leaders announce a bold new transformation. Everyone attends the kick-off. Over time the structural changes start taking place. One set of processes and systems is replaced by another. One set of documents and metrics is replaced by another.
But beneath the surface, nothing has really changed. Every milestone in the transformation feels like a grind. People are grudgingly using the new tools, but they’re not bought in.
This is exactly what Drucker warned about; mistaking short-term success for long-term value creation.
Structural changes without belief or buy-in are temporary. They can be easily reversed. You need a strong group of believers to help make the changes stick.
But belief doesn’t grow in spreadsheets. It grows when people are invited to contribute, not just comply. According to Self-Determination Theory people are more motivated when they are engaged in what they agree with and feel in control of their own behaviours (i.e. autonomy). In addition to this, the IKEA effect shows that people are more committed to things they help build.
When we launched The Lean Product Lifecycle at Pearson, we spent time involving stakeholders in the design of the process. We hosted workshops during which we showed them our process and invited their feedback. We did this before any rollout took place. Our goal was to create a sense of ownership and belief.
What I learned from this work was that leaders need to design their transformations in a way that motivates people to willingly participate and contribute. You need to attract rather than force people to join your movement.
The Feel Good Transformation
In a feel good transformation, we start where there is already energy and interest. We run discovery research to identify where belief already exists. We then work with these early adopters to run small pilot projects. If our pilot projects succeed, we will have early wins.
Now we have the social proof and visible results to attract others to our movement. We now need to celebrate our wins using great storytelling. This will attract new people to join, driving the flywheel of change.
In a feel good transformation, change doesn’t disappear when leadership stops pushing. This is because belief drives voluntary participation.
So stop asking, “How do we get people to adopt this?”
Start asking, “What would make people want to be part of this?”
New systems, processes and structures don’t transform organizations. People do. And the future of your company will be built by people who believe.
This Is How To Create Believers
- Start Where Belief Already Exists – Find early adopters and start working with them.
- Get Early Wins – Run small pilots and produce tangible results.
- Make Progress Visible – Use storytelling to celebrate success, build momentum and attract others.
- Design For Contribution – Give people a sense of ownership in the movement.