Why Small Changes Stick
It’s likely we’ve all experienced the disappointment that seeps in when you first fail to meet the goal you made on New Years and decide to throw in the towel all together. It’s so universal it’s managed to snag its own day of the year on the second Friday of every January, National Quitter’s Day. That’s the importance of making small changes that stick. In fact, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve made it further than about two thirds of people, so keep up the good work!
We’ve been conditioned to believe transformation is dramatic: sweeping resolutions, radical overhauls, and overnight reinvention. Yet most meaningful progress doesn’t happen in leaps. It happens in increments. After we give ourselves permission to pause—to land before we launch—it’s important to start small.
Small changes are often dismissed as insignificant, but they’re the only ones the nervous system, the brain, and real organizational systems can reliably sustain. They work not because they’re easy, but because they’re consistent.
Think about how healthy habits form. Not through motivation alone, but through repetition. I recently learned a new way to build running skills by running the days of the year. While I might alter running to walking on occasion and might curtail some of the longer runs near the end for time sake, incremental change lowers the cognitive and emotional load required to begin—and that’s what makes continuation possible.
In organizational contexts, this matters even more. Small changes respect reality. They meet people where they are, not where a strategic plan assumes they should be. That shift is a subtle—but powerful way to build trust. When leaders model realistic experimentation instead of performative transformation, they signal psychological safety. more than perfection, and that progress is not dependent on constant urgency.
Over time, these micro-adjustments compound. A slightly different way of running meetings. A more intentional pause before decision-making. A new language for feedback. A moment of reflection built into existing workflows.
None of these look revolutionary on their own. Together, they reshape culture.
This is where emotional intelligence plays a critical role. Incremental change requires awareness of patterns that no longer serve us. It asks leaders to notice not just what needs to change, but how to create sustainable change.
At Ziel, data has consistently shown high level performance comes from alignment, not acceleration. From helping leaders recognize when progress means moving forward—and when it means stabilizing first.
Small changes are not a lack of ambition. They are a commitment to durability.
If January is about getting grounded, then this phase is about choosing movement that doesn’t pull you off balance. About allowing clarity to translate into action without overwhelming the system that has to carry it.
You don’t need a complete reinvention to move forward with purpose. You need traction. And traction is built one deliberate step at a time.