Purpose and necessity

Where you place emphasis in the change, the burning platform or the promising future, depends on where you expect the most impact. If you’ve used the burning platform often, it might lose effectiveness over time. Try the promising future approach. For example, a government organization responsible for implementing laws and regulations was aware of the need for a single digital government. They also realized this could attract new players with generic solutions. What if the organization lost its position to these new players? This seemed a good reason to change into a responsive, customer-oriented organization. However, most employees didn’t feel this urgency. It seemed far-fetched and unlikely. What did resonate was working from purpose: giving citizens what they are entitled to and ensuring their security. This sparked intrinsic motivation among employees to participate in changes aimed at this goal. A government organization putting citizens first was exactly why most employees had joined. Improving in this area appealed to them. 

In this example, you see that sometimes you need a promising future, and sometimes a burning platform. Looking at your organization, do you have examples of both?