The Formula for Change

The formula for change was originally developed by David Gleicher and refined by Kathie Dannemiller. It is a powerfully simply way of understanding what it required for change to happen. This knowledge can be used in various business applications for understanding why change is happening through to affecting change in others.

Widely used in sales the change formula is a simple but powerful way of assessing and influencing a situation. The basis of the formula is exploring the gap between how dissatisfied with their current situation someone is and what vision they have of how the future could be. This is then related directly to how resistant to change that person is, and whether they know what to do to make change happen. Clearly each of these measures is subjective and requires a degree of investigation to ascertain.

This is graphically represented as: 

The Formula

To understand how the formula works we can simply put some numbers into it, for instance if:

Example 1

D = 10, V = 20, F = 10, R = 1,000

10 x 20 x 10 = 2,000 - This is greater than resistance @ 1,000 so change will happen

Example 2

D = 10, V = 20, F = 10, R = 3,000

10 x 20 x 10 = 2,000 - This is lower than resistance @ 3,000 so change will not happen.

Each situation and each individual if unique and should not be compared or assumed. It is critical to the successful use of this formula that each are is considered separately. 

 

Dissatisfaction

To understand how dissatisfied someone is we need to ask lots of questions, gradually digging deeper into how they feel about the situation until we get to the true dissatisfaction. The danger is that we stop too early, maybe we are uncomfortable asking the question or maybe we simply assume we have the reason for their dissatisfaction because this would be what we would feel in this situation. It’s not about us and it’s not about what we think is right and wrong, it’s all about them and how they feel about the situation at the point we are talking to them.

This process of digging deeper has often been compared to peeling back the layers of an onion, each layer reveals another and our job is to keep peeling until there is nothing left to peel. As a rule of thumb, as soon as you believe you have found their true level of dissatisfaction, peel at least one and probably two more layers to get the true answer.

Good question here could be: (Alan Pease, “the questions are the answers”)

 

• What is your number one priority right now?
• Why do you choose that one?
• What are the implications of you not achieving this?
• How do you feel about that?

 

And just keep digging!

Vision

Vision is a similar process to dissatisfaction but in this section you are trying to find out what they aspire to. If their situation were different what would they like different to look like. It is important to keep them focused on what they do want and not on what they don’t want. If they struggle with this then the process of “Clarity by Contrast” can be used, where as soon as the person states what they don’t want just ask “well what do you want then” or “if that’s what you don’t want what would it have to be like for you to want it”. These questions challenge the individual to think of what they do want in contrast to what they don’t want.

Some people find it easier to find dissatisfaction and some find it easier to discover the vision. In both instances it is all about how powerful each section is. Someone with a strong vision who is motivated to move towards this can be just as likely to change as someone who is in a very uncomfortable position and has a desire to move away from it.

 

First steps and Resistance

Nothing will change if they don’t understand what they need to do to make it change (First Steps) or if their resistance to change is higher than their dissatisfaction x vision x first steps.

Many change agents and sales people focus on lowering resistance or making it easy to change but they are missing the critical part of the formula which is dissatisfaction and vision.

If you are working with people to help them through change in your business then use the Formula for Change to understand what they going through internally so that you can make the change as easy for them as possible and hopefully retain some good people that otherwise you may have lost, and maintain productivity in an uncertain period.

If you are in a position where you need to affect change in others such as sales or leadership, use the Formula for Change to build on their dissatisfaction and/or their vision to overcome whatever level of resistance they currently have.

However you use the Formula for Change, use it with integrity, it isn’t there to trick people it’s there to help them make the right change for them.

If you want to find out more about the Formula for Change and how it could work for you call ACS on 01273 463854 and ask one of our team.