The sponsor shows how much of the goal is already done and sizes the remaining step to look small and achievable, so people start moving and early progress carries them on.
An example
Eighteen thousand customer files had to be brought up to new identification standards within a year, and the compliance operations team at a commercial bank saw a mountain. Its head started by counting what was already done. Files opened in the last three years met most of the standard; about seven thousand needed only one missing document. She announced the program as forty percent complete on day one, with the counts by branch, and set the first target on the easy files: two thousand in the first month. The team hit it in three weeks. She posted a progress chart outside the operations floor and updated it every Friday. By the sixth month the team was ahead of schedule on the hard files, and two branches had asked to take on extra work.
Why it works
Large changes look too big to start, and people put off what they cannot see themselves finishing. Showing how much is already done gives them a head start, and sizing the next step small enough to take makes the whole change look easier, so starting becomes likely and early progress builds its own momentum. It depends on the progress being real and the first steps advancing the goal; padded counts or busywork steps collapse as soon as someone checks.
The thinking behind it
Chip Heath and Dan Heath Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (2010), by Chip and Dan Heath, advises shrinking the change into steps small enough to take, which includes showing people how far they have already come. Counting the files that were already nearly compliant gave the team a head start, and a first target of easy files was a step they could finish in weeks.
John P. Kotter Leading Change (1996) sets out an eight-stage process for major change, one stage of which is generating visible short-term wins that sustain commitment to the effort; the stages are a practitioner model drawn from Kotter's experience. A weekly progress chart posted where everyone works makes the early wins visible, and that visibility is what carries the team into the hard files.
When it fits
Large changes that people see as overwhelming are the case: remediation programs, system migrations, a new standard across many sites. You need an honest count of what is already done, a way to break the rest into small steps, and a visible way to track progress.
How to use it well
Count what is already done against the goal, honestly. There is usually more than people think.
- Announce that progress with the counts behind it.
- Set the first step small enough to finish soon, and make sure it truly advances the goal.
- Track progress where everyone can see it, and update it on a fixed day.
- Mark the early milestones briefly, then set the next step.
Save the hardest part for when momentum is real, and name it from the start so no one feels misled. Publish the counting method so anyone can check it.
What it costs and where it backfires
Making a hard change look small can leave people unprepared for the hard part, and they will feel misled if it arrives without warning. Easy first steps can also create a false sense of pace. Padding the head start or inflating the progress counts makes the chart a false record, and the trust it built goes with it.
When it is used on you
Find out how the count was made and what is left, especially the hard part, when a big program is announced as largely done. Ask for the schedule of the last stage as well as the first. Then decide whether to join on what remains.