Change is not war.

Your employees are not soldiers.

And there is no enemy. Now, if there is, the enemy is you.

Still, it can help to think of it like a war. In small doses, at least.

On the one hand, there is the old notion of rallying the troops. There’s no enemy to fight, not really, but the best way to get people on board is to make one up.

Talk about the coming apocalypse and what you can do to fight it.

Efficiency is important, but it hardly gets your heart pumping.

Yet a crusade, a villain to vanquish, barbarians gathered at the borders of the lands?

That hits you right in the stomach.

Nothing inspires action more than the nagging feeling that someone, somewhere nearby, is hungry to destroy you.

So maybe you talk about the government, the economy, society, or your main rivals. You paint verbal pictures of how they want to hurt the organization (no, its people!). And they will succeed unless everyone embraces this new initiative for change.

Phew. Well done, which is to say, not cheesy, that will really light a fire under your people.

But there is another sense that change initiatives are like fighting a war:

Safe tactics are similar.

Blitzkrieg.

Shock and amazement.

Win the battle before the enemy knows it has started.

It all comes down to speed, accuracy, and power. Hit someone hard and fast in the right place, they fall apart. It doesn’t matter how high someone is or how powerful their army is, if you achieve this, then it doesn’t matter.

The cultural inertia of your organization is a colossal giant. Maybe that’s your real enemy. If so, it’s worth a blitzkrieg.

As soon as the initiative is announced, time is ticking.

The sooner you can make a change, get a win, and celebrate, the better.

Too often, change initiatives lumber along.

Progress comes gently but slowly.

Things change, but it’s not clear if those changes make things better.

Any victory that arises slips away, barely noticed and barely celebrated.

Bah.

If you can celebrate something the same day you announce the change, then do it. Will that be a momentous cataclysm that will change the paradigm? Hardly, but that doesn’t matter. If it’s a real change with a real improvement, shout it from the rooftops.

Then do it again on day 2.

Then on day 3.

Keep going and never stop.

If you give inertia a chance to regroup, it will. So keep up the pressure, keep celebrating the victories and drive your change in the DNA of your organization.