*This month’s post is written by Diana Hutchinson*
You’ve probably been there. A new policy or process is rolled out. You’ve communicated it clearly. You assume it’s in place—until you catch a moment that proves otherwise. What needed to happen is not happening. Again.
At that point, it’s easy to jump straight to accountability: more oversight, stricter follow-up, or clearer consequences. And yes, accountability matters.
Yet in many cases, the real issue isn’t a lack of willpower—it’s a lack of shared commitment.
When a change doesn’t stick, the problem often lies deeper in the leadership stack. Not in enforcement, but in how the change was created, communicated, and supported.
The frustration is real—and it’s not just you!
My Great Mileage Tracking Spreadsheet…that didn’t track
In our office we track our mileage for reimbursing team members for client travel, and for purchasing offsets for our greenhouse gas emissions. Well, we TRY to track our mileage - but it wasn’t very accurate and we weren’t reimbursing everyone for their client-related mileage.
A few years ago I had the great idea to create a team shared spreadsheet where people could enter their mileage on a regular basis while their memories were fresh. Our new spreadsheet would help us when we need to invoice clients for reimbursable travel, and to avoid having to make an unexpectedly large payout at the end of the year to employees for mileage.
I let everyone on our team know about this new process, and made sure people knew where to find it for making their updates.
Are you surprised to hear that people’s use of the spreadsheet was…mixed?
The good news is that experience taught me how to do less thinking and problem solving and actually spend less time and energy nagging and being frustrated that people aren’t doing what they should do. Here are some questions I discovered that can help make changes stick, followed by “the rest of the story”...
Five Questions to Shift from Hit-or-Miss Compliance to Commitment
1. How clearly do people see the importance of the problem?
If people don’t see the value of a change, they won’t put in extra effort to implement it.
Ask: How well do my team members understand what’s at stake—and what’s possible if it works?
2. Who helped design the solution?
A fix that makes perfect sense at the top might feel clunky or impractical to those on the ground.
Ask: How much did I invite input from the people who will be most affected?
3. How much was there space for disagreement or different opinions?
Silence isn’t the same as buy-in. If it wasn’t safe to challenge the idea, the absence of objections may say more about the power dynamic than true alignment.
Ask: How much healthy conflict was there—or are people just going along?
4. How are we supporting people to succeed?
Behavior change requires both motivation and skill. More often what looks like the lack of motivation is actually the lack of know-how, tools, or ability.
Ask: How much do people have what they need to make this successful?
5. How are we evaluating and adjusting?
Leaders often skip this step—assuming the change will “just work.” Yet building in evaluation gives your team the chance to course-correct together.
Ask: What signs will tell us it’s working—and what will we do if it’s not?
My Great Mileage Tracking Spreadsheet, continued…
When I reviewed my initial approach to fixing the tracking problem, I realized the results I got - or didn’t get - were because I skipped most of these steps. While people weren’t outwardly opposed to the tracking sheet, I didn’t check their motivation, involve them in the solution, or ask them about concerns or how to make it better.
At the end of the first year people sent in almost all their tracking in the last few days - so for the next year, I requested people update the sheet quarterly and I sent out reminders. The results weren’t much better, so for the next year I tried increased accountability: “Only worry about filling out your mileage sheet if you want to get reimbursed.”
Once again, a team member’s crunch submission (just slightly before the end of the year) was frustrating to me and the bookkeeping team.
I realized I needed to go back to steps 2 and 3 to co-create a solution that can work with everyone on my team.
I can tell you we are running some new experiments this year and checking in on how well it is working so we can adjust as needed.
The Leadership Shift That Actually Works
In summary, here’s the approach I learned that leads to real results rather than disappointment:
Align on why the issue matters
Involve the people doing the work in designing the solution
Invite conflict, not just agreement
Support with motivation and skill
Evaluate and adapt as a team
When you follow these steps, something powerful happens: you don’t have to carry the solution alone. Your team becomes invested. You’re all thinking. You’re all acting. Together.
And that’s what effective leadership really looks like.
If you want to build a team that owns and drives meaningful change—let’s talk.
