“Law Three” from my article: “The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management 3)Paint “the first step” in vivid colours “Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is started, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance.” Robert Collier (1885-1950) As leader, you are going to have to foster the taking of the first step by every individual whose participation is essential to your change initiative. This means that the first step must be crystal clear and painted by you in vivid colours so that no individual hesitates because of lack of clarity. The simplest way to do this is to facilitate a discussion that results in “to do” lists that include actual initial steps and time lines, and if necessary, methodologies. For example, the first step might be compiling a list of prospective clients in a particular industry that would have need of a particular service. The action may involve delegating internally (or even outside the firm) the task of creating the initial list and might include identifying precisely the parameters within the list, like numbers of employees, locations etc. The punch line is to have a first step that is clear enough that you can ask if a specific thing has been done. For example, “is the initial list ready” is only a sensible question if it is clear that the first step was to create such a list and precisely what that list would be comprised of. (Law 4) Law #1 Law #2 (…thanks to Cameron Cooper of the Australian Law Journal where my article first appeared)