Chris is unhappy at work. He thinks the work is boring, and he doesn’t like his boss or co-workers.
Why doesn’t he quit?
The answer lies in Newton’s First Law: An object continues to do whatever it happens to be doing and resists change unless an unbalancing force is exerted upon it.
An Unbalancing Force is needed to overcome resistance to change. The amount of Chris’s unhappiness is not great enough to unbalance him. And no strong vision of an attractive alternative entices him to move.
An Unbalancing Force might occur if something big were to happen, such as if Chris were passed over for a promotion he had been expecting. Or he might quit one day if enough minor things built up until they were intolerable. But in that case, Chris will only have moved from one difficult situation to another.
When you focus only on what is wrong with your current situation, you can become miserable, with your feet stuck in the mud.
There is nowhere to go unless you also have a believable, compelling vision of a where you want to go.
Vision alone is not necessarily an Unbalancing Force.
How many people have dreams that they never put into action because they are not grounded in reality?
When you only focus on your vision without an accurate assessment of your current reality, you can become unrealistic, with your head stuck in the clouds.
An Unbalancing Force occurs when enough tension is generated between the realization that the current situation is no longer tenable and a belief in the possibility of a more desirable place to move toward.
The Newton’s First Law holds true for organizations as well as individuals.
Organizations are like elephants. The bigger they are, the harder they are to move. However, no matter what size your elephant is – whether you are the leader of a team, a division or an entire organization- the same principle applies. To create an Unbalancing Force, you need to do both:
1. Describe the unvarnished truth of the current situation. To be credible, you must articulate a truth that people already sense or that is verifiable. Creating a false sense of urgency will backfire as people will lose trust in your leadership.
and
2. Help people envision an attractive future that resonates with their hopes and dreams and which they believe is possible.
Paint Powerful Contrasting Pictures
When you hold the images of both your present situation and your desired future, creative tension is generated. Another law of nature is “tension seeks resolution.” It feels uncomfortable, but it is the creative force that drives the movement in the direction of your vision.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is often used as an example of a compelling vision. It is actually a beautiful example of an Unbalancing Force. He paints powerful pictures that go back and forth between the “truth of the present realities” (in red) and “vivid pictures of a desirable future” (in blue).
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification”--one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers…. we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day and.…. we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Another great post Jesse.
An old saying/quote came to mind although I’m not exactly sure where I read it or heard it. Just googled it: ‘Change occurs when the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of changing.’
I am a living testament that this saying is true, although not in the AA sense!
Then there are the frog in the pot of water syndrome experiences that you and I touched on quite awhile back in one of your other posts. One of those very slow build-ups where you don’t know you’re boiling until you are…boiling. 🙂
I love how you emphasized ‘Describe the unvarnished truth of the current situation’. It took me awhile to appreciate that kind of truth in my own life. Now? It’s something I value highly. We can’t make good decisions in life unless we are standing on something solid. This is why integrity is so important. For example, if we are being lied to by a significant other, our boss, our org, or government…those lies only serve to disconnect us from reality. It’s unstable. Truth? Now there’s something we can all stand on. It’s solid. And I’m not referring to religiosity or anything like that. Simply people saying what they mean. Meaning what they say. And practicing that ourselves with one another. We can rely on one another when we are walking in truth together.
So I suppose you could say that would be an essential component of my own ‘I have a dream’ speech! 🙂 Speaking of which, I LOVE the contrasts you revealed in MLK’s speech! I don’t know if it was your intention or not, however, by the time I finished reading, it made me want to write up my own ‘dream’ speech using it as a template.
Now when a teacher can motivate someone to want to do something without actually TELLING them to do it or giving it as an assignment? That’s a great teacher.
Thanks for being such a great model Jesse. I appreciate you.
🙂
~Samantha
Truth is a big subject that I only touched on. Thanks for digging into it deeper, Samantha. I love your statement, “We can’t make good decisions in life unless we are standing on something solid.” Inherent in revealing the truth of our situation is a willingness for self-reflection and to be honest about your own motives and needs.
Glad to hear you are motivated to write you own “I Have a Dream” speech.
“When you focus only on what is wrong with your current situation, you can become miserable, with your feet stuck in the mud.”
You have to be coming from a good space to be creative, and people really take this for granted. I suppose what’s sad is the downward spiral is probably not visible to the “victim”. Moving the elephant is hard, and I do agree that if you do not show people “the promised land”, it’s hard to get them going and believing in the vision, particularly when the going gets tough.
Thanks for my weekly buzz Jesse
Good points, Thabo. Without a vision and without hope, it is easy to get caught in a downward spiral. And it’s also true that in order to inspire people to move, they have to believe in the vision. But belief in the vision is what keeps you going when the going gets tough – as long as you are willing to live with the creative tension generated by the contrast between your present reality and your vision.
The usual excellent insight Jesse, thanks.
A wise friend of mine creates an analogy for change which I like and I think is relevant to the Newton reference. Imagine an organisation to which change is being applied as a huge, enormously heavy disco ball. It takes enormous energy to move the ball from the perpendicular, but with enough effort and urgency, it can be done. But the moment the energy lessens or drops completely, the ball returns to it’s point of least resistance, the perpendicular.
So I would add continued effort, reinforcement and persistence to the challenges you describe in the article.
Warm wishes, David
Yes, the moment the pressure for change lessens, there is a tendency to revert to status quo, especially early on before there is a “critical mass” that generates its own momentum. Thanks for additions, David.
Thanks Jesse, this is s great post. Thanks for using Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech – it’s a wonderful example of painting contrasting pictures. When I work with teams on their vision there’s a chance that some may view it, as a colleague of mine one put it, ‘buttercups and butterflies’. I always get them to talk about obstacles to future success. Note that I’m not encouraging them to go back to analyzing the problems – that tends to make them feel helpless. Instead we know the unvarnished truth in order to get on with making progress around change.
Some great points here. Thanks, Alan. Although it is necessary to continue to be realistic about your present situation, re-opening analysis takes you in the wrong direction. It’s an example of how tension seeks resolution, but this time in favor of present reality, because you give up on the vision.
Those “buttercups and butterflies” sparked a tremendous movement that continues to guide and inspire people today. When vision is held in the hearts and minds of the people themselves, the words become symbols that remind of where they are going and why. For those who are not involved, the words can sound meaningless because there is no meaning for them. That’s why, when creating a shared vision, I’m less concerned about what’s written on paper than what occurs in the discussions around creating it.
Thanks for this post. The imagery and terminology of “unbalanced force” help me understand the process of inviting others to share vision.
I think the only way to express the unvarnished truth without being a downer is to combine it with pictures of the preferred future.
Very helpful!
Absolutely! Presenting the unvarnished truth without combining it with pictures of a preferred future gets you stuck even further in the mud. Thanks for your contribution, Dan. Great to see you here.
Powerful post Jesse,
Thank you!
Carl
Thank you, Carl. Glad you found it helpful.
It reminds of a process where you identify a problem, and create three solutions for the problem or situation. The “unvarnished truth” is definitely a great way to counteract the sugar-coating that can be so prevalent in organizations. State the reality regardless of positive/negative and the vision. Thanks for the reminders!
Good point. “Sugar coating” the vision lessens its believability and the credibility of the leaders, especially in the early stage when people are still in the process of understanding it and buying into it.
Marvelous post. By using MLK’s speech- you also show the value of story. To move forward, one must very graphically depict current reality..and sometimes it takes a REAL dose of reality. Consider the executive who came into the Board room and dumped all manner of digital devices on the table and announced, ‘This is why we no longer understand each other! We don’t know how to really communicate.”
You can bet the other execs got the message.
Fabulous story and example, Eileen! He made his point and so did you. Much thanks for sharing your wisdom here.
Terrific insight into how people experience change and what drives them to move from stuck to inspired and then to action. I see a lot of leaders who think if they just say it enough people will get it but it takes more than that. You have to create experiences that shake people out of their comfort zone even if that comfort zone is a bad place to be. Thanks for presenting these ideas in very practical terms and with a fantastic example that shows how them put into practice.
Great points, Scott. So often leaders rely on telling and are frustrated when it doesn’t work, especially when it’s so clearly logical to them. They need to appeal to both the head and the heart, which is why imagery is so powerful (whether it’s through words or physical objects as Eileen’s story illustrates).
Hi Jesse,
Another nice post from you. I liked the way you related Newton’s First Law.I have recently became a great fan of Newton’s laws in relation to understand thoughts and other apects of life. But if you add other two Laws to it, you get a pretty good picture.
Thanks.
Hi Gurmeet, Indeed, all three Laws are relevant. I had actually included then in my first draft of this post, but later deleted them as it wasn’t necessary to make my point. But since you mention them, here they are:
Newton’s Second Law: Heavier objects require more force to move the same distance as lighter objects.
If Chris is happy at work, thinks the work is interesting and likes his co-workers, what would entice him to leave? It would take a very attractive offer. The happier he is in his job, the more powerful the incentive to move needs to be.
Newton’s Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. When you push an object, it pushes back.
Only telling Chris what’s wrong with his current situation is not likely to motivate him to change as he will come up with an equally strong reason for what’s right about it. He also needs to see a viable path forward. Movement will occur when enough tension builds between Chris’ dissatisfaction with his current situation and his attraction to a possible alternative.
Thank you for adding other two here Jesse, They do make a good story. 🙂
Thanks for this gift, Jesse. I was attracted as much by the illustration as by the title. Newton told us that things in motion tend to stay in motion. But the illustration points to another physicist long before Newton. The ancient Greek scientist Archimedes explored the properties and forces of the lever. He famously said “give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the whole world.” The physics of telling one’s truth, and telling the New Story, are the levers that can change organizations, and our world.
Beautifully said: “The physics of telling one’s truth, and telling the New Story, are the levers that can change organizations, and our world.” Little did I know the picture was illustrating yet another law of nature that applies to change. Thanks for your illuminating comments, Bruce.
Jess,
Great post! More people who are miserable in their current positions need to read what you are saying. Too often people think they are better or they owed something with out putting forth the work, effort, and learning that is need to change their situations.
Absolutely, Dan. The same principles apply to how to move yourself – get yourself out of the mud – as they do to how to lead others. Thanks for emphasizing this important point.
Another metaphorical consideration, since we are discussing Newtonian physics, is the affect of mechanical advantage and simple machines….pulleys, levers, inclined planes, etc. I would suggest that should Chris be given a lever long enough moving the elephant becomes easier…how long it is, where the fulcrum (pivot) is, and how ‘heavy’ Chris is become organizational contexts, that can help or hinder this movement.
Indeed. Referencing the comments by Bruce Waltuck, Archimedes said “give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the whole world.” In the visioning process, after creating the vision and anchoring it to reality, the next step is to find strategies that will leapfrog toward the vision. Finding those leverage points are most important.