{"id":1438,"date":"2026-02-25T21:54:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keyknowledge.my\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2026-03-25T02:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:16:28","slug":"understanding-what-really-drives-change-in-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keyknowledge.my\/?p=1438","title":{"rendered":"Understanding What Really Drives Change in Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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You’ve probably been there. You decide to make a change in your business\u2014maybe a new way of doing things, a different approach to customers, or a shift in how your team works. You announce it, everyone nods, and then… nothing really changes. Or it changes for a week and then slowly drifts back to the old way.<\/p>

Frustrating, right?<\/p>

Here’s the thing: change in a business doesn’t happen just because you want it to. There are actual drivers\u2014things that push and pull change through your organization. Understanding these drivers can be the difference between a change that sticks and one that fizzles out.
Two smart guys named Burke and Litwin spent years studying how organizations change, and they came up with a model that maps out all the different things that drive change. Now, they created this for big corporations, but the principles work just as well (maybe even better) for small businesses.<\/p>

Let me break it down in plain language.<\/p>

The Big Picture: Two Types of Change<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

First, you need to understand that not all changes are the same. Burke and Litwin identified two main types:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Transformational Change<\/span> –<\/strong> This is the big stuff. Changes that fundamentally shift what your business is or how it operates. Think: changing your entire business model, entering a completely new market, or\u00a0 totally reinventing your company culture.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Transactional Change<\/span> –<\/strong> This is the day-to-day stuff. Tweaks and adjustments that make things run better but don’t change the core of what you do. Think: updating a process, changing a policy, or\u00a0 reorganizing team responsibilities.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Both matter. But they work differently and need different approaches.<\/p>

The Transformational Drivers (The Big Movers)<\/span>
<\/strong>These are the heavy hitters\u2014the things that create major change in your business. When these shift, everything else has to follow.<\/p>

1. External Environment (What’s Happening Out There)<\/strong><\/span>
This is everything outside your business that affects you: the economy, your competitors, technology changes, new regulations, customer trends, even stuff like pandemics or political changes.
For small businesses:<\/strong> You can’t control this, but you have to respond to it. When COVID hit, restaurants had to pivot to delivery. When e-commerce exploded, brick-and-mortar shops had to get online. When your biggest competitor drops their prices, you have to react.
The point:<\/strong> External pressure is often what forces you to change. Don’t ignore what’s happening in the world around you.<\/p>

2. Mission and Strategy (Why You Exist and Where You’re Going)<\/strong><\/span>
Your mission is your “why”\u2014why does your business exist? Your strategy is your “how”\u2014how are you going to win?
For small businesses:<\/strong> This is your North Star. When you change your mission or strategy, everything else needs to align with it. If you decide to shift from being the “cheapest option” to being the “premium quality option,” that’s a strategic change that will ripple through everything\u2014your pricing, your marketing, who you hire, how you train them, everything.
The point:<\/strong> Clear mission and strategy give purpose to all your other changes. Without them, you’re just making random adjustments.<\/p>

3. Leadership (You and Your Core Team)<\/strong><\/span>
This is about the people at the top\u2014their vision, their behaviour, their decisions. In a small business, this is probably you and maybe a couple of key people.
For small businesses:<\/strong> You ARE the change. If you want different results but you keep doing the same things, nothing will change. Your team watches what you do more than what you say. If you say “customer service is our priority” but you never follow up with customers yourself, your team won’t either.
The point:<\/strong> Change starts with leadership. You have to model what you want to see.<\/p>

4. Organizational Culture (How We Do Things Around Here)<\/strong><\/span>
Culture is the unwritten rules, the shared beliefs, the “way we do things.” It’s what happens when you’re not in the room.
For small businesses:<\/strong> Your culture might be informal, but it’s powerful. Is your culture “we work until the job is done” or “we respect work-life balance”? Is it “the customer is always right” or “we stand up for our team”? Is it “try new things and learn from mistakes” or “stick to what works”?
The point:<\/strong> If your desired change goes against your culture, it won’t stick. You need to either change the culture first or design the change to fit the culture.<\/p>

The Transactional Drivers (The Day-to-Day Stuff)<\/strong><\/span>
These are the operational pieces that keep things running. When you change these, you get improvements, but not fundamental transformation.<\/p>

5. Structure (How You’re Organized)<\/strong><\/span>
This is your org chart, your reporting lines, how teams are set up, who does what.
For small businesses:<\/strong> In small businesses, structure is often fluid. Maybe one person wears five hats. That’s okay, but there still needs to be clarity about roles and responsibilities. When things go wrong, does everyone know who’s accountable?
The point:<\/strong> Good structure supports your strategy. Bad structure creates confusion and
bottlenecks.<\/p>

6. Systems (Your Processes and Procedures)<\/strong><\/span>
These are your standard ways of doing things\u2014how you onboard customers, how you handle
inventory, how you manage finances, how you communicate.
For small businesses:<\/strong> This is what we talked about in the systems blog! When your systems align with your goals, work flows smoothly. When they don’t, you get chaos. The point:<\/strong> Systems should make life easier, not harder. If a system isn’t supporting your goals, change it.<\/span><\/p>

7. Management Practices (How Managers Actually Manage)<\/strong><\/span>
This is about how your managers (or you, if you’re managing people) actually manage day-to-day:
How do they give feedback? How do they make decisions? How do they handle problems? How do they support their team?
For small businesses:<\/strong> Even if you don’t have “managers,” you still have management practices.
How do you check in with your team? How do you handle mistakes? How do you celebrate wins?
How do you deal with conflict?
The point:<\/strong> Good management practices build trust and capability. Bad ones create fear and dysfunction.

8. Work Unit Climate (The Vibe in Your Team)<\/span><\/strong>
This is the feeling and atmosphere in the day-to-day work environment. Do people feel safe to speak up? Is there trust? Is it supportive or competitive? Stressful or calm?
For small businesses:<\/strong> You can feel this when you walk in the door. Is your team energized or drained? Collaborative or siloed? Innovative or just going through the motions?
The point:<\/strong> Climate affects performance. A toxic climate kills productivity and drives good people away. A healthy climate makes people want to come to work.<\/p>

The Individual Level (Your People)<\/span><\/strong>
At the end of the day, organizations don’t change\u2014people do. Burke and Litwin identified three things at the individual level that matter:

9. Task Requirements and Individual Skills (Can They Actually Do It?)<\/span><\/strong>
This is about whether your people have the skills and knowledge to do what you’re asking them to do.
For small businesses:<\/strong> If you want to change how something is done, do your people actually know how to do it the new way? If you want to start using new software, has anyone been trained?
If you want better customer service, does your team know what good looks like?
The point:<\/strong> You can’t expect people to do things they don’t know how to do. Training and support matter.<\/p>

10. Individual Needs and Values (What Motivates Them?)<\/strong><\/span>
People have their own needs, goals, and values. Some want growth and challenge. Some want stability and security. Some are motivated by money, others by purpose or recognition.
For small businesses:<\/strong> You probably know your team pretty well. What makes them tick? Are you asking them to change in ways that align with what they care about, or are you asking them to go against their nature?
The point:<\/strong> When changes align with what people value, they embrace them. When they don’t, you get resistance.<\/p>

11. Motivation (Do They Want To?)<\/strong><\/span>
This is the energy and drive to actually do the work. It’s one thing to know how to do something (skills) and another to actually want to do it (motivation).<\/p>

For small businesses:<\/strong> If your team is going through the motions without energy or enthusiasm, something’s off. Maybe they don’t see the point. Maybe they’re burned out. Maybe they don’t believe it will matter.
The point:<\/strong> Motivation comes from seeing purpose, feeling valued, and believing your effort will lead to something good.<\/p>

12. Individual and Organizational Performance (The Results)<\/strong><\/span>
This is the output\u2014the actual results you get from all of the above. Are people performing well? Is the organization hitting its goals?
For small businesses:<\/strong> This is your bottom line, your customer satisfaction, your team retention, your growth. When everything else is aligned, performance follows. When it’s not, performance suffers.
The point:<\/strong> Performance is the outcome of everything else working together. If performance is poor, look upstream at what’s not aligned.
How It All Connects
Here’s where it gets interesting: everything is connected. Change one thing, and it affects the
others.
For example:<\/p>