How to Shift the Status Quo Without Breaking the System

Insight

The status quo is more than infrastructure; it’s also a collection of habits reinforced by that infrastructure.

Funding guidelines, organizational practices, staff roles, and accountability structures—over time, these elements harden into specific ways of working and thinking. It’s how the system was optimized to deliver the current outcomes.

That’s why reform efforts often feel like they’re running uphill. Shifting a system isn’t just about rewriting policy. It’s also about disrupting long-established roles, behaviors, and processes to foster new outcomes.

Change that lasts comes from understanding what holds the current system in place, and designing strategies that work with that gravity, not against it.

Insight in Practice

Six ways to facilitate change and achieve desired outcomes in entrenched systems:

• Be explicit about what’s changing—and what’s not.
  Organizations need clarity. Name the goals, define the space for creativity, and give permission to think differently.

• Celebrate early adopters and share what’s working.
  Cultural shifts are contagious. Highlight stories of success through training, peer exchange, and internal comms. Make innovation visible and rewarding. When early movers are celebrated—not sidelined—it invites others to follow.

• Use design labs to create safe zones for experimentation.
  When a system is stuck, it needs structured space to imagine something different. Design challenges or innovation labs offer a “container” where staff can co-create solutions without the usual constraints. Opus Group is currently supporting a project with the Future Skills Centre using this exact approach.

• Embed a learning mandate.
  Ask service providers to reflect on what they’re learning, not just what they’re delivering. A learning mindset helps people adapt, spot barriers, and surface insights that would otherwise be lost in execution.

• Use data to create feedback loops.
  Real-time data should power adaptation, not just compliance. Make data accessible, tie it to action, and create the habit of continuous improvement.

• Name and dismantle real (and perceived) barriers.
  Innovation dies where fear lives. Make time to understand the structural or cultural blockers that keep people in legacy ways of working. Then actively remove them.

Case Study

Middlebury College, one of the oldest liberal arts institutions in the U.S., faced a pivotal moment in 2018 under President Laurie Patton’s leadership.

Students demanded fossil fuel divestment, which was the start of Energy2028—a bold initiative to achieve 100% renewable energy, cut energy usage by 25%, divest fossil fuels from the endowment, and integrate sustainability into education.

However, trustees hesitated, and administrative hurdles loomed. This multistakeholder effort brought together activists, experts, and decision-makers to craft a plan that balances ambition with practicality. How did Middlebury navigate entrenched systems to drive lasting change? Read more in this HBS case study.

Question to Consider

What invisible norms, rules, or incentives are keeping your system anchored to the past?

Quote of The Week

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

—Buckminster Fuller

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