What Knies was doing—without realizing it—was honoring a motivational strategy that comes from Miguel Brendl, a professor of marketing at the University of Basel. “Early in your pursuit of your goal, look backwards at what you have achieved; toward the end, look forward,” he told a reporter. Brendl’s idea makes intuitive sense: If you have a goal

Another tool for exploring the “goal of the goal” is a technique that comes from the discipline of solutions-focused therapy. It’s called the “Miracle Question.” The therapist says the following: Imagine that in the middle of the night tonight, as you are sleeping, a miracle happens… the problem you are stressed about has been solved. Poof! Gone.

Meanwhile, he forced a reassessment of the organization’s programs, which were both plentiful and ineffective. Mollenhauer asked: Which of our programs are delivering on our mission? And which are providing a financial contribution? Programs that did neither were discontinued, no matter how well-intentioned.

Many leaders treat “change initiatives” as something to be hatched in private and then foisted on employees. When they resist, the leaders act surprised and ask, “How do I get people to buy in?” “Buy in” is code for: How do I get people to want what I want, rather than what they want? But that’s backward. If you want to get out of a rut and leap

We’ll call that “well-chosen something” a Leverage Point (a term popularized by the systems theorist Donella Meadows). Leverage Points are interventions where a little bit of effort yields disproportionate returns. Of the universe of things you could do to improve a situation, the Leverage Points are the things you should do.

So what looks like “mismanagement” is often the accidental accretion of outdated habits. And the way you can begin to detect and ultimately erode that accretion is by going and seeing the work. You’ll spot places where you and your team have acclimated to problems—instead of fixing them. Those long-tolerated bad habits are Leverage Points:

Quick adaptation is the ultimate force multiplier. If we aspire to get unstuck and make progress on what matters, we must accelerate our learning.

Progress is the spark that makes believers of skeptics.

To spark change, we shouldn’t think AND, we should think INSTEAD OF. Less of this, more of that.