Why Your Data Isn’t Moving Anyone Into Action

A reflection from The Heart of Change by John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen

Hej! It’s William!

This is part of the "Meller Highlights" series with reflections and learnings from my personal book highlights. I read a lot of books, and as a way of giving more value to my paid subscribers, I now share great book lessons specially for them.

If you’ve been following along and enjoying the ideas I share, I’d love to have you join them. Becoming a subscriber not only gives you full access, but it also helps me keep creating and going deeper with the work I do.

How do these highlights work? Every day, I pick one idea from my reading and think about how to apply it in real life. Most stay as private notes, but once a week, I choose one that feels special.

That’s the one I share here, a highlight that turns into a deeper reflection on how it can change the way we do something.

Today’s highlight: The Heart of Change by John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen

“Good analysis rarely motivates people in a big way. It changes thought, but how often does it send people running out the door to act in significantly new ways? And motivation is not a thinking word; it’s a feeling word.”

Let’s reflect on that…

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this happen. Weeks go into preparing slides, filling them with bullet points, charts, and forecasts. We polish the arguments, rerun the numbers, and tell ourselves that once people see the evidence, the decision will come naturally. The assumption is simple: if they understand, they will act.

Except they don’t. At least not most of the time. The gap between knowing and doing is bigger than most leaders want to admit.