Low-Hanging Fruit

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Most major organizational initiatives require visible, unambiguous, short-term wins to persuade skeptics and marginalize cynics. Strategic change leaders need to identify the low-risk actions within the larger effort that will have the widest impact, and then publicize the results. Here are helpful tips and real-world examples.

John Kotter has been studying organizational change for two decades and stresses that change leaders must provide enough visible, unambiguous, short-term wins in mission-critical areas to persuade skeptics and marginalize cynics. “These are concrete successes,” Kotter says, “ones that an objective group of people would agree are clear evidence of progress.”

Short-term wins allow a better chance of completing a change effort if they are visible to many, the terms are unambiguous, and the victory is closely related to the change effort.

The focus on small things with large impact that avoids burdening others in the organization is an example of what Karl Weick calls a “small wins” strategy. In Weick’s classic 1984 article, he says that we often respond to big problems by doing nothing because meaningful progress seems impossible. Conversely, approaching even daunting problems with a plan for a small intermediate success encourages us to take action.

As you prepare to move forward, occasionally look …

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