Sustained Momentum

We can think of introducing ideas as planting a sapling: without water, sun, and a source of nourishment, the young tree will die. It will need attention to keep it alive and growing. Sometimes we forget how important this ongoing support is—for all living things.

Take a pro-active approach to the ongoing work of sustaining the interest in the new idea in your organization.

You are a Dedicated Champion(129). You have made some progress introducing the new idea into your organization.

The many other things that need to be done will tempt you to put the task of introducing the new idea on the back burner for a while. But this can cause you and other people to lose interest in it.

It takes work to maintain interest. Even though it may be easy to start the change effort with a lot of enthusiasm, the never-ending list of things to do can make you feel tired of the investment it takes to introduce the new idea. But without continuing, pro-active efforts, any new idea can wither and die on the vine. If you don’t reinforce the benefits of your new idea, you run the risk that excitement and interest will fade, especially when everyone gets busy with other things. You can’t become complacent. You may have told your story countless times, but you have to keep on giving your sales pitch and providing support. It never really ends. There are always new people to bring in and new management to sell.

There’s a danger that when success is evident in the change initiative, it’s easy to just rest on your laurels and not do anything for a while. But even when the new idea has been accepted and is being used, people still require periodic confirmation that their decision to adopt it was a good one or they may discontinue their use. They need continuous invitations to become involved and continuous reassurances that they will get their wins.

During any change initiative, you must keep yourself inspired. Newton’s Third Law was never so true: An object at rest tends to stay at rest until acted upon by external forces. You need to keep the new idea in a motion that it is difficult to stop because momentum is hard to get back once you lose it.

Therefore:

Take a pro-active approach in the organization to the ongoing work of sustaining the interest in the new idea. Take some small action each day, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to move you closer to your goal.

The following are some suggestions for ongoing activities that will keep the information flowing.

• Keep an e-Forum(135) and In Your Space(167) alive and interesting.
• Use Personal Touch(198) and talk about the new idea every chance you get.
• Plan frequent events, such as a Brown Bag(113) or Hometown Story(164).
• Bring in a Big Jolt(107) speaker to stir up more curiosity and interest.
• Start a Study Group(228) to keep people learning.
• Piggyback(201) on already scheduled events.
• Be aware of outside happenings and call them to the attention of the organization.
• Attend conferences to learn new things and network with others. Share this information with others using External Validation(148) and Stay in Touch(221).
• Keep your knowledge up to date. Your continuous learning is an important part of this effort. Read and make information available—Plant the Seeds(204).
• Take Time for Reflection(240) to learn what is working well and what should be done differently.
• Just Say Thanks(183) so that people feel their continuing support is appreciated.

Keep the momentum going even when you encounter a setback. Those who get back on the horse and do something constructive will probably make it while others who have trouble weathering the storms are likely to fail. Find a Shoulder to Cry On(213) for help in handling your difficult problems.

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This pattern builds a sustained change initiative. It keeps the idea alive in you and in others and helps to reinforce individuals’ decisions to adopt it. When the change effort is living and growing, members of the organization will see the new idea as an active and evolving initiative, even when they are too busy to take advantage of everything that is offered.

But keeping a steady momentum on any one project goes against the grain. Our natural tendency is to work in cycles. After completing a big task, we like to do something else for a while. But the longer we wait, the harder it is to return to the project because we lose some of our passion for it. In the long run, we usually find that periodic bursts are more stressful and less effective than simply doing something, even something small, on a regular basis.

It never occurred to Carl that introducing patterns is like growing a garden. You can’t just throw the seeds in the ground and say that’s that! No, you have to water, feed, and weed. Carl discovered this after he had given a few brown bags. As more and more people came by to ask about one design pattern or another, he realized that he was now the official encourager of pattern use and that once the mantle had been placed on his shoulders, it was up to him to make sure he thought about it all the time. After a while it became second nature. He would say, “I ‘do’ patterns!”

Poet David Whyte writes, “I decided on two things: firstly I was going to do at least one thing every day toward my future life as a poet. I calculated that no matter how small a step I took each day, over a year that would come to a grand total of 365 actions toward the life I wanted. One thing a day adds up to a great deal over time. One thing a day is a powerful multiplier. Sometimes that one thing was writing poetry itself or memorizing lines of a newly read poem that caught my eye, or just writing a letter to an organization to say I was available for readings or talks. Sometimes it was a phone call to someone in a position of influence, letting them know what I could do. Sometimes it was preparing the ground in my mind before the conversation. Soon I felt as if I was being prepared by the conversations themselves. Over the ensuing weeks it was beginning to add up. I began to overhear a background buzz in the ethers that added to my dedication.”^[*]