Do Newton’s three laws of motion apply to Change Management?

Have you ever been in or seen a situation where a change has failed to materialise or even worse the change (or transformation) programme has been successfully launched but failed to stick and eventually your organisation reverted to old ways of doing things. If your answer is “oh yes” or you are gently nodding your head or recollecting that “one” project, you know what I am talking about.

Still wondering what Newton’s 3 laws of motion doing here, read further:

Law 1:

Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

All organisations and its people are happy to do the same thing that has brought the organisation success in the past and therefore want to maintain the status quo.  i.e. “If it ain't broke, don't fix it”. However, that is not true in the current world that we live in. Here is where Newton’s first law comes into picture. There are always forces that are constantly applied to any organisation. External forces such as changes to industry, new players, new market or even a new CEO, bring about change(s). These are the triggers or the reasons for the change management.

These forces should be strong enough to propel changes through completely and successfully. Simply, it should be strong enough to do 2 things – one, move the people out of status quo and two, see through the change fruitfully. Otherwise, things will not just revert to the “old ways” but also affect any future change programmes. How? Returning to old ways and the pace at which the changes are rolled back creates a strong impression within the culture of the organisation and it will take a lot more effort to move the organisation away from its steady state of motion.

Law2:

The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.

After all, we want to make change successful and we do need to build momentum. I did mention above that, the forces should be strong enough to finish the marathon called Change. There are two chief requirements for a force though.

1. Greater the size, the stronger the force is required.  Consider the diagram; there are two components in play here: The sheer size of the change (rock that is pushed up) and the environment (hill) in which the change is carried out and which plays a big part too in change acceleration.  Although I have used this diagram to show a case, this is not representative of all cases.  The situation could vary anywhere from moving small stone in a flat surface to even massive stone up a big mountain.


2. Acceleration in right direction. To push the rock up the hill, the force or the effort to make the change happen depends on where the effort is applied. Lot of effort will be wasted if the effort is not directly against the lines of gravitation.  Many a times, knowing where the gravitation force is a tough one. And, this is where we need the right people, tools and skills. This gravitation in change management dictionary is called as resistance and that takes us into the next law.

Law 3:

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As we move along with the change programme, there is always resistance.  The change equation is given by:

D   *   V   *   F  > R

D: Dissatisfaction with the status-quo.  Why I law is applied.

V: Vision of the future

F: First Steps

R: Resistance to change.

While the first steps of the change management prepare the organisation for the change (Change Readiness assessment and factors that influence the success of change), resistance goes beyond the first stage of change management and that is why Newton’s III law is very true. Resistance is not bad. Consider any sports – A player or team has to elevate the level of its/their own game when pitted against a worthy opponent. In the same way, proponents of change should look to use the opportunity provided by resistance to increase the penetration of change. By doing that, there is a twofold advantage: First, change is accepted more widely and two, more importantly resistance is reduced or eliminated. It is better to eliminate resistance otherwise, it can modify the balance of change equation mentioned above to topple the change effort. Once the change effort starts to disintegrate, it is difficult to stop that chain reaction. i.e. equivalent of a rock rolling down the hill.

Now let us put all of these things together. While it is easy to break change management into three parts and analyse, things are not so easy in reality.  Why it is so complex might be the question? It is because of the fact that three laws are happening at the same time and organisations these days are running a few transformation programmes simultaneously, which complicates this problem further.  

Finally, I leave you with one line from Charles Kettering:

“The world hates change but that is the only thing that has brought progress.”