Ideas do not lead change. People do.
This article was co-authored with Megan Trice.
Almost two years ago, a mutual friend keenly suggested we meet up. Megan had recently left her Fortune 500 job to help female founders own the power they deserve. Sarah was coming off an inspiring project at Zeus Jones, helping an emerging startup grow, and was asking herself what might be next.
Connecting over (in person!) coffee and a shared ambition to help leaders realize change, we set off to see what working together would feel like.
As we embarked on a few projects together, our hypothesis was that we could leverage our combined knowledge and skills to help people get to the root of what drives their business, what might be holding it back and, through a collaborative process, help them craft a fresh vision and plan for achieving their desired future.
Through this work, what became clear to us was that addressing the business challenge was only half of the work. Executing and implementing new ideas required people to flex new muscles and develop new skills. If we wanted to see those plans come to life, we needed to honor the humans involved and create a plan for their growth as well.
It dawned on us that ideas do not lead change, people do. We wanted to do more than make great presentations, we wanted to help people drive lasting change. It was from this insight that Loom was born.
As we laid forth a foundation for Loom, we found ourselves reflecting on our past. Throughout both of our careers, we have experienced the intense frustration of failed-change efforts. From the new, bold corporate mission that fizzled after the internal launch event, to the organizational restructuring that failed to bring about the behavior change that was at the root of the problem, to the founder struggling to build a new habit, we’ve witnessed common patterns that prevent people from realizing change in organizations large and small. And it’s not just us — research shows that over 70% of organizational change-efforts fail.
The truth is that making change real is messy. It requires people to voice their fears and vulnerabilities. It requires trying new ways of working, and living in the unknown when failure and all its consequences are a very real possibility. It requires resisting the desire to check boxes as a signal of progress, and to just be in the mess for a bit. It requires acknowledging that no single presentation, framework, offsite, workshop, or Zoom happy hour will “solve it.”
We also know that making change real is possible — and when you experience it, the feeling is magical. Throughout our careers, we’ve also had the pleasure of being part of teams that came together to build something that once felt like a pipe dream. These experiences can feel like magic, but they are certainly not serendipitous. They are the result of people taking time to honestly reflect, to intentionally experiment, and to do the individual and collective hard work that change requires.
Through Loom, we want to bring the lessons from these successes and failures to more leaders. We cannot remove the mess (trust us, we’ve tried). But we can walk alongside you, helping you find the magic in the mess.
