Why Building a Community Helps When Implementing a Change Initiative

In one of my previous companies, I was asked to implement a Wellness Program. The first thing I did was to benchmark with other companies about their wellness program. One of the most well-known companies offered a lot of freebies and incentives to employees if they join their wellness program. But even then, less than 15% of the employees signed up to join. Consider the following reality: ask 100 people gathered in a room if they believe that exercise is good for you. Everyone will raise their hand. Ask the next question: How many of them engage in regular exercise? Only a few hands will raise their hand. Belief hardly reflect into behavior.? I realized that the challenge of getting people to sign up was much harder than what I thought. I could not do the project alone. I needed a support group.

I decided a Runners’ Club would be the best way to get people interested in wellness. People didn’t need a special equipment to join. Only a pair of rubber shoes that almost everyone would have. One does not have to be physically fit to get started into running. Almost anyone can run for a minute, then walk, then run again, then walk. My problem was I have never ran before. I have not joined a single race. So I talked to the more experienced employees who were already runners to form the core and officers of the club. I was amazed that employees of all shapes and ages started joining, making the club the biggest and most active among all the clubs in the company. My banner wellness program, “Keep Fit, Feed a Child”, where every pound lost was matched with a donation to a feeding program for undernourished children, always met the target amount and all the children beneficiaries met their normal BMI at the end of the 6-month feeding period. That decision also significantly changed my life. Five years after I formed the club, I became a Marathoner, completing the full 42.195 kilometers in an official race, something I have never imagined before.

Truly, building a community contributes significantly to a Change Manager’s desire to reach the Tipping Point, defined as “the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.”

What’s your story? Have you also tried forming a community when you implemented a change initiative?