Works
- Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems, American Psychologist 39, no. 1, 1984
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
Small wins. Weick argues that framing a problem on a massive scale prevents action, because it overwhelms bounded rationality and raises arousal to dysfunctional levels. "A small win is a concrete, complete, implemented outcome of moderate importance"; one may seem unimportant, but a series of them reveals a pattern that may attract allies, deter opponents, and lower resistance to later proposals.
What it explains
Weick explains why a sequence of modest, finished results builds support for a larger change faster than an argument for the whole. Each completed step gives allies something to point to and leaves opponents less to fight.
Tactics that draw on Karl E. Weick (1)
In Thinking Tools
Known for
An American organizational theorist who introduced loose coupling, sensemaking, and organizational mindfulness into organization studies. His small wins essay argued that problems framed at a massive scale paralyze people, while a series of concrete, completed steps builds momentum.