Why we make the wrong things easy

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Last week we closed a five-part series on D-R-I-V-E — a methodology for moving standards from concept to institutional adoption.

The whole series rested on one premise:

If it's not moving, you haven't made it easy enough.

True. Also incomplete.

We're already very good at making things easy. The problem is that we usually make the wrong things easy.

And then we wonder why nothing moves.

Institutions reward the behaviors that feel productive while making the adoption-relevant behaviors difficult, invisible, risky, or socially expensive.

The DRIVE methodology is, in the end, a counter-optimisation. It says: at every phase, make the adoption-relevant thing the easy thing.

At every phase, the question is the same:

D — Define the gap and the bar​
Are we making it easier to describe the problem than define the bar that would actually solve it?

R — Rally the coalition ​
Are we making it easier to collect supporters than shift the conditions keeping the status quo in place?

I — Identify the decision window ​
Are we making it easier to circulate the proposal than map the actual path to institutional adoption?

V — Voice the demand from every direction​
Are we making it easier to amplify one voice than to create the coalition surround sound that actually shifts legitimacy and incentives?

E — Engineer & track adoption
​Are we making it easier to celebrate isolated wins than build momentum toward solving the whole problem?​
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In sum: notice what the institution has made easy. Notice that it's not the thing you need. Then design the alternative path of least resistance — personally, interpersonally, institutionally.

Try this:

Take whichever phase your current change effort is in. Name the easy work being done in that phase right now. Then name the harder work the phase is actually asking for.

D — complex framework, or simple bar?
R — agreement collection, or condition-mapping?
I — pitch polishing, or window-mapping?
V — one voice, or constituency?
E — waiting, or visibility?

For each one, name a small redesign that would make the easier path the adoption-relevant path.

🌿 Make the right things easy.