Dissatisfaction + Vision = Change

In the work I did out west, and the work I'm getting ready to take on in a few short days, I'm asked to help individuals and teams change the way they do their work. Ideally, folks in my line of work are welcomed with open arms by employees and managers excited about the change. But the reality is far different from the ideal, and it is not easy to make a compelling case for folks to do things differently.

There are all sorts of models and techniques that are used to help bring folks along and "see the light" that they should do things in a different way. You've probably heard or read about things like making a compelling "whats in it for them?" argument, and performance coaches and sales/marketing experts have written novels on the subject, some that are full of shit, and others that have some useful techniques and/or fresh ideas.

But I've been thinking a lot about change of late on a personal, professional, family, and a national level; and I keep coming back to an equation that was taught to me by a coach at my last job. And although she used it to describe performance in the workplace, I've found it to be true in just about any situation/circumstance whether we're talking about a personal change or a complex issue like health care reform. So here goes (and thanks Kris):

Dissatisfaction + Vision = Change

If I look back on big changes I've made, they've only come about when the left side of that equation was very clear and very compelling to ME. For example, my decision to move to Seattle for grad school came as a result of being unhappy with my professional life coupled with a wish to help others attain better health. I'm willing to guess that any major changes you've undertaken (undertook?) were a result of those two variables on the left side of the equation.

Of course, our changes don't always lead to the outcome we hoped for, which is why I've thought about this equation as our nation wrestles with the health care challenges. Part of the problem with making change a reality is that our nation is filled with opinions (some that are grossly speculative and inaccurate) on both variables of the left side of this equation.

If you ask a well-insured, wealthy family what they're dissatisfied about, it might be their taxes funding Medicaid eligible patients, or their inability to see a specialist as quickly as they'd like. On the flipside, if you asked a person without insurance, living with Asthma what they're dissatisfied with, they might mention the cost of care or their access to a doctor or medications to make life more comfortable.

In a nutshell, we don't share a common definition of what dissatisfies us with health and health care, and we certainly don't share a common vision for what things would look like in an "ideal" world, so I'm a bit skeptical about how far reform will go this year. I tend to believe that people will make rational decisions when they've got all of the facts/data needed to make a decision...but unless we get some agreement on what we collectively value it is going to be tough to make a big change.

Maybe the equation will help you all if you're thinking about change of your own, helping someone make a change, if you'd like to pull something clever out at your next meeting with the boss.