THE CHANGE FORMULA

Change can be hard for most people, including myself during my early years of exploring & executing personal change, but it doesn’t have to be mysterious or complicated.

I realise, after the hard knocks, all it takes is just thinking about & doing things differently.

To help myself to understand change better during those tough years, I had often used the following interesting formula (often attributed to Michael Beer, writing in his 'Organization Change & Development: A Systems View', during the early eighties):

Successful Change = (D x M x P) > C

Successful change is a function of the relationship between four variables:

- dissatisfaction with the way things are (“D”);

- a different model for the future (“M”);

- the process of achieving the new model (“P”); &

- the costs of making those changes (“C”);

Change can be accomplished successfully if people are unhappy with the way things are, if they have a plan for an alternative, and if there is a way to turn the plan into reality.

When the variables are multiplied together, all of those i.e. dissatisfaction, a model, and a process, must be greater than the rational and emotional costs involved.

Regardless of the costs, if any of the other variables approach zero, your chances of bringing about real change are rather slim.