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CEO

Making Change Stick Playbook

Last Updated: 2026-08-20

Run change against the system that resists it, not just the problem in front of you. This playbook turns a fix that keeps getting absorbed into a loop you can name, redesign, and hold in place until it pays off.

1

Recognize Compensating Feedback Before Escalating Effort

Use this when a fix that worked has started slipping and you need to tell whether it is fading or you are imagining it. Catch the pattern before you commit another round of budget and hours to a problem built to absorb them.
2

Map the Balancing Loop That Defends the Status Quo

Use this once you suspect a fix is being absorbed and you need to turn the hunch into a loop you can act on. A validated map is what gives the redesign a target instead of a guess.
3

Redesign the Loop Instead of Adding Force

Use this once you have a validated loop map and are ready to choose a fix that changes the structure instead of fighting it. The aim is a lever the system cannot simply absorb, not a bigger version of what already failed.
4

Lead Through the Worse-Before-Better Transition

Use this once you have a structural fix ready to launch and need the change to survive the dip that removing the old relief will cause. The work is setting expectations and evidence before the dip, then holding when it arrives.
5

Build the Organization's Capacity to Catch Compensating Feedback

Use this once you are past managing one fix and want the organization to catch compensating feedback without you in the room. A leader who spots it personally helps once; an organization that spots it helps for years.

Common Pitfalls with Making Change Stick

  • Escalating effort into a problem built to absorb it. When resistance rises with each push, matched pushback is the signal to stop and diagnose the loop, not to force it one more time.
  • Calling an early win before the system's delay has passed. A bump on day one usually reverses; decide up front how long the pushback takes and hold the verdict until that window closes.
  • Fixing the visible symptom while the defended target sits untouched. Go back to the loop map and aim the intervention at the level the system is protecting, or it will be absorbed again.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start diagnosing a fix that will not stick?

Stop escalating first. Name the specific metric drifting back to its old level, then check whether recent rounds of effort produced a proportional gain. If resistance rises in step with your pushing, treat that as the signal to map the loop rather than add force. The goal of the first step is a clear read on whether the problem is structural, not more resources aimed at the symptom.

What does a balancing loop map need to include?

Four things: the exact level the system keeps restoring, who or what adjusts their behavior to restore it, the full cycle from intervention to pushback and back, and where the delay sits. Confirm the map with the people whose behavior it describes and revise where their account differs, then store it so the next diagnosis starts from it.

How long should I wait before judging whether a fix worked?

Match the wait to the loop's delay, not the reporting calendar. Decide up front how long the system usually takes to push back, and defer the verdict on an early win until that window has passed. A cadence shorter than the delay reports the early gain and misses the later fade, which is how absorbed fixes get mistaken for wins.

How do I get my organization to catch this without me?

Make it routine. Review outcomes on the loop's timescale, keep a log of fixes that faded, teach the team to name the pattern from your own examples, and build a pushback check into how interventions get approved. When a team member flags a fading fix unprompted and the check runs without you present, the capability has moved from you to the organization.

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