Ariel Arrieta [D-MTKG]

One of the concepts that stayed in my mind after having returned from  HBS is the formula for change.

This framework provides a simple model to understand and act on the factors that influence change of people as well as of organizations.
These concepts are not new, the were developed by por Richard Beckhard and  David Gleicher in the 60′s.
To generate any type of change whether personal, in an organization or in a community you must consider 3 key aspects that have to be present for the change to happen:

D x V x F > R
The factors are:
D = Dissatisfaction  with how things are now.
V = Vission of what is possible to generate or change.
F = First concrete stops to make this change real
If the product of these 3 factors is higher than the
R = Resistance, then the change is possible.
The combination of these 3 elements determines the speed of the change and how difficult it is going to be.
Some documentation also mentions resistance as the cost of the change, where the cost can be financial or psychological.
Entrepreneurs Examples.
In the situation of someone who is trying to start a new project these 3 factors can be explained as follows:
The dissatisfaction level, is how bad you can be today compared to the way you want to be, this implies the thirst for success that a person can have or the economic pressure they face.  The future vision can be detecting the market opportunity and creating a product or service that lets you catch this opportunity.  And lastly the processes are the steps that these entrepreneurs must take in order to realize this vision.
I often meet entrepreneurs that are trying to generate this change which implies to go from working from somebody to a “Independent Relation” and they are lacking one of the 3 legs that hold this table.  They have the vision of the opportunity and they know what they have to do but being in a comfortable job makes it difficult to make the leap taking short term risks.
The case of the entrepreneur that have the “thirst for success” which generates the necessary dissatisfaction level, and see and opportunity in the market but they can not act on this since they don’t have the experience of creating and startup and they miss the details on the process. The final case which is the most frequent among entrepreneur that because they need to create a personal entrepreneurship, they have the motivation that generates dissatisfaction, with the situation they are in and they know the processes in order to continue doing what they had been doing, but they don’t have the component of the vision of the opportunity.

Applying the model to your company
In the situation that the founders need to generate a change in the company is advisable to understand:
D = Who is dissatisfied? Which are the factors that could influence and generate a greater dissatisfaction (this is the counterintuitive that makes very useful this way of thinking)? Which are the consequences if continuing like this and increasing the dissatisfaction?
V= How commited is the management? Is there a clear vision and a strategy? Is this understood and communicated to everyone or only in the mind of few people? How can I help communicating this view and to make them believe on it?
F= Which are the steps to be taken? How can they be eased?
R= How should this model be communicated and which are the consequences of not changing?
I hope you find this useful!