Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results

The Importance of Change Talk

William R. Miller from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and Stephen Rollnick from the University of Wales in the United Kingdom found that ambivalence is the primary obstacle to change. People tend to feel two seemingly contradictory ways about making a change; they want to and they don’t want to.¹⁰ This is also known as the approach/avoidance conflict. And, as we saw from the work of Patterson and Forgatch, the tendency to make pro-change arguments only invokes the opposite side of this inner debate.

To help people deal with their ambivalence and resolve it in a positive direction, Miller developed a technique called Motivational Interviewing (MI). This technique encourages the person considering ...