In the classic movie comedy, “What About Bob?”—Bob’s psychiatrist suggests that he take “baby steps” to get over his multiple phobias and attachments. “Baby steps” are a joke in the movie, but when working toward change, “baby steps” really do work.
Massive tasks, like change, are made manageable by shrinking the big task into mini tasks. The completion of each small piece creates hope—hope and motivation. The small success fosters initiative to complete future tasks, leading to further successes, increased drive and motivation, and a circular process that inevitably tackles the massive task of change.
We often refer to the Heath brothers’ book, Switch. In the book, the Heath brothers explain the cyclical process that they refer to as shrinking the change: “Small targets lead to small victories, and small victories can often trigger a positive spiral of behavior.”
The key is setting achievable goals. Conquering little goals will not only create confidence in the possibility of mastering the long-term goal, but also generate the motivation needed to get there.
As we provide leadership coaching to managers, we see that small behavior changes make a big impact on employee’s perceptions and reinforce the change. The manager who learns to provide one compliment a day to her employees discovers that employee engagement increases and there is more cooperation. Over time, ”big changes come from a succession of small changes” (Heath).
Move from point A to point B with baby steps in the right direction.
