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Shrink the Change
How can shrink the change improve people, teams, or organisational effectiveness?
Contents
A change method that reduces the first commitment until action feels manageable and momentum can develop.
Shrink the Change is a motivational technique for making a difficult transition feel manageable enough that the Elephant—the emotional side of change—will begin to move.
When to use it
- Start a change whose apparent scale or effort is preventing action.
- Reduce the dread and avoidance associated with an intimidating task.
- Produce an early win while remaining honest about the work still ahead.
- Strengthen confidence by making progress visible.
Origins
The method is grounded in the logic of small wins: reduce the initial demand until people can act, then allow successful action to build confidence for what follows.
What it is
To shrink a change is to reduce how distant, demanding or risky it appears. That may mean making the first action easier, showing that part of the journey is already complete, engineering a small early success or requesting a tightly bounded commitment that can begin a constructive cycle.
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