Over the past decade, we have worked with many organizations public and private to change something fundamental about themselves. And we have learned a great deal about the difference between “change as an initiative that’s here today and gone tomorrow” and “change as an enduring force that transforms not only organizations, but the people within them.” From these learnings, we have developed a four-step Path to Sustainable Change that we use every day to help people who are serious about moving from a current state to a desired state. The four steps are (1) Declare Your Intentions, (2) Define What Good Looks Like, (3) Connect through Kinship, (4) Ignite Small Beginnings.

1. The sr4 Playbook
On The Path to Sustainable Change

2. On The Path to Sustainable Change, there are always
The Few who know – and The Many who are thinking of
other things; The Few who decide what to do – and The
Many who determine how much gets done; The Few
who see something new and different – and The Many
who have heard it all before. Between The Few and
The Many, there’s a chasm – The Chasm of Disconnect.
Sustainable Change depends on crossing the chasm
to connect The Few with The Many. This Playbook is
for anyone who’s on The Path – to flash the alert that
somewhere up ahead, The Chasm awaits. To cross it, we
offer four basic plays. Use them to align the behaviors
of The Many with the intentions of The Few, and
generate the results you had in mind when you first
started out on The Path.
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5. The Few & The Many
The Path to Sustainable Change begins wherever
someone has a clear intention to create a future that
is different from the past. They then enlist a small
number of people to discover, debate, define and
design a departure from the way things have been.
After months of careful deliberation, this hand-picked
“Few” arrive at a plan for change. But a funny thing has
happened: The Few have now become so immersed
in their thinking about things as they might be, that
they have lost all ability to see through the eyes of The
Many who are equally immersed in things as they are.
So The Few create a PowerPoint and invite The Many
to a meeting. For The Few, this meeting is a bright
shining gateway to a new kind of future; for The Many,
it is a brief and inconvenient interruption of a highly
demanding present. In this chasm between The Few
and The Many, countless worthy intentions are robbed
of their full potential.

7. Crossing The Chasm
With the first play, you declare your intentions. This is
where you paint a picture of moving from a current
state to a desired state. With the second play, you
look for signs that somewhere, some of the time,
someone is already doing something that to some
extent approximates fulfillment of your intentions.
That will be your initial definition of what good looks
like. You use the third play to connect through kinship
– which is helpful in rallying people to a cause. With
the fourth play, you start inducing your desired state
– not with a “big bang” approach, but by igniting
small beginnings wherever work is being done.

9. Play #1: Declare Your Intentions
There’s a reason you want something to change. So Answer these
what is it? It can’t be vague. It can’t be convoluted. questions:
It can’t be abstract. It must be clear, concise and What, exactly,
do you
actionable. And you have to state it in unequivocal
want done
terms. Secondly, your intention has to be worth differently?
working for – The Many are more likely to sign up
Why is it
for a cause they can believe in than to dedicate worth doing?
themselves to an analytical rationale. Thirdly, When do you
there has to be a time dimension. There’s a huge expect to start
difference between “a man on the moon” and “a man seeing results?
on the moon by the end of the decade.”

11. Play #2: Define What Good Looks Like
Your approach on The Path will be strength-based. Build on your
That means you don’t tear down what’s already strengths
there and start over from scratch. Rather, you search Use ordinary
words and
the status quo to find the closest example of the
examples
change you’re looking for – and build on that.
Work at the
Upon finding the best available example of your
level of daily
desired state, you say: we’re looking for more of this, routines
more fully, more often, more widespread, with more
consistency. In this play, you are trying to help The
Many see what you want them to do differently.
You will be most successful when you engage
people at the level of their daily routines, helping
them discover how practical changes inside familiar
parameters will drive different outcomes.

13. Play #3: Connecting through Kinship
This play is based on the observation that people Create Authentic
are more likely to rally to a cause than to mobilize Empowerment
behind an organizational objective. And they are Demonstrate
Cultural
more likely to embrace a cause when they are
Awareness
invited by someone they know and trust, and
Generate
they feel the cause is about them and not some
Empathic
abstract goal. Therefore, with this play, you will find Understanding
ways to build a sense of kinship among everyone
involved, which will enable them to begin to feel a
connection with your cause. First, create Authentic
Empowerment, by showing a genuine interest
in the personal motivations of others. Second,
demonstrate Cultural Awareness, by focusing on
the diverse capabilities of a group or team. Third,
generate Empathic Understanding, by fine-tuning
the way you listen and respond.

15. Play #4: Ignite Small Beginnings
In running this play, you are focused on Transfer
transferring ownership of sustainable change ownership to
The Many
from The Few to The Many. You are removing
Remove the
barriers that might inhibit the uptake and
barriers
spread of change across boundaries of function,
Dare to think
geography and accountability. And in terms of
small
the ground-level actions required, you are driven
by a single reminder: dare to think small. Because
succeeding on The Path to Sustainable Change is
steeped in ordinariness: it’s local, it’s practical, it’s
endlessly underwhelming.

16. The path of ordinariness: local, practical,
endlessly underwhelming.
sr4 Partners LLC
135 S. LaSalle, Suite 2100
Chicago, Illinois 60603
312.254.8630
onthepath@sr4partners.com