Shape the Path

In recent posts, I have been looking at change management from the point of view of a metaphor about the elephant, the rider and the path. When considering change, we are often faced with the elephant of emotive thinking. In some way, our emotions, or those of the people who will be part of the change, seem to influence all of our thinking, and at times it can seem like a runaway elephant. For this reason it is really important that we learn how to motivate the elephant.


The rider is the logical part of your thinking, or of the people with whom you want to see change, so directing the rider is an important part of the change process. By finding the bright spots, and making our goals actionable, we are able to more effectively direct the rider.

Finally, one of the ways we can both direct the rider and motivate the elephant is to make it clear where they are both going. Shaping the path in front of the elephant and its rider is an important part of change management. The path represents the environment which may affect the activities of the elephant and the rider.

Often we want to blame people's behaviour for our ability to achieve change, when in fact their behaviours have been influenced by their situation. The Heath Brothers in their book Switch suggest that successful change efforts try to change the situation in order to change behaviour, rather than blaming the person being changed.

We can also shape the path by identifying the triggers that impact the environment. The Heath Brothers suggest: “I’m going to hit the gym everyday after my 2:00 meeting,” can be three times as effective as planning to “start working out tomorrow.”