Newton and Change Management

Around 334 years ago, in the year 1686, Sir Issac Newton propounded his three Laws of Motion in the “Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis”. These laws, as we all know, serve as the foundation of classical mechanics and act as the basis of all physical motion ranging from vehicles to projectiles, spacecrafts and even astronomical objects.

Newton once said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” And like him, if we make an attempt to stand on his giant shoulders and look beyond physics, we can come to a realization that his fundamental Laws of Motion actually have a strong application in the area of Change Management.

In this article, let me try to expand on this analogy, and explain how we can apply Newton’s Laws of Motion in the context of Organizational Change Management.

First of all, let us refresh our memories on what these three laws are

• First Law: Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it
• Second Law: Force is equal to the change in momentum per change in time; For constant mass, force is mass times acceleration (F = m * a)
• Third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

So, now let us see how these laws apply in the Change Management context

• First Law: The first law is also called as the Law of Inertia and says that unless a force is applied an object will stay at rest or in its existing path of motion. This is very true in an organizational context also where stakeholders and actions will remain unchanged or run its normal course unless there is an external force pushing for the change to happen. The force could come in the form of market factors or in the form of an internal change agent like you. And it is only this force that will make the organization change its current state.

• Second Law: The second law helps us understand the magnitude of the Force required to move an object at a certain rate. If you view this in the organizational change context, the force or organizational push required to drive change depends on the size of change (mass) in terms of the number of stakeholders impacted, the magnitude/ extent of the change and how quickly (acceleration) the change needs to be implemented in the organization. Naturally, the force will need to be much higher if the magnitude or impact of the change is very high or if the change needs to be implemented very quickly.

• Third law: The third law is probably the most popular and easiest to understand because it says that whenever there is an action, there is always an equal and opposite reaction. In the organizational setup, the reaction could simply mean the rebuttal or opposition to change. But many a time it is important to understand that this is also about the magnitude of emotional energy that gets formed directly against the change and may manifest in very different forms. Hence every change practitioner needs to prepare a strategy to address this counter energy through various forms of stakeholder management approaches and active manage the reactions.

In conclusion, Newton’s Laws of Motion give us a strong perspective on Change Management and help us understand that just like physical forces move the world around is, it is "change forces" that help move our organizations ahead!

So how are you going to deploy "change forces" in your organization?