You Can Lead With Change (Collection)

6. Barrier #3: Failure to Finish

Returning to our flight metaphor, at this point you have pushed the throttle forward, and your 100-ton change project begins to lumber down the runway. You build up speed until you reach the point where people recognize that the old right thing is now the wrong thing. You continue to build momentum until you pass the critical point where you need more runway to stop than to take off. People now see what the new right thing is. You celebrate a little; you have overcome the first barrier to change.

As you continue down the runway, your airspeed climbs until you reach that magical point of “rotation,” where the plane’s speed is sufficient to pull back on the stick and lift the nose up. Then the friction and noise ...