The IKEA Effect – what flat pack furniture can teach us about change management

What do instant cake mix, IKEA furniture and change communication have in common? This was the question I posed at our recent lunchtime webinar, The IKEA Effect.

Have you ever bought a packet of instant cake mix and wondered why you still need to add ingredients?

Back in the 1950s, when instant cake mixes were first introduced, they were intended to make the lives of housewives easier by minimising the amount of effort it took to bake a cake. Initially they were met by resistance: they made baking a little too easy, which devalued the skill and effort it took to make a cake. So they removed the eggs from the mix and they grew in popularity.

The same goes for the age of flat-pack furniture. The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias whereby customers place a disproportionately high value on products that they partially created. In fact, a study from 2011 found that customers were willing to pay up to 63% more for furniture they had assembled themselves than for the same pre-assembled IKEA items.

Research in the Journal of Consumer Psychology suggests that self-assembly “may allow people to both feel competent and display evidence of that competence”. Another possible explanation for the IKEA effect suggests that self-assembly enables “a focus on the product’s positive attributes, and the relationship between effort and liking”.

But what does this have to do with effective change?

Research by McKinsey and Company shows that 70% of all transformations fail. They either fail to deliver the promised benefits, or they’re abandoned entirely. One of the big reasons why change fails is because we do change to our people, rather than with them. And, like assembling furniture, employees who aren’t involved in the change will be less invested in the end result and value it less. 

Change is also incredibly personal. As highlighted in the Harvard Business Review, “For change to occur in any organization, each individual must think, feel, or do something different”.

So why do people resist change – and what can be done about it?

• Loss of control – change interrupts autonomy. You feel like you’ve lost control and, sometimes, power. Or it can feel like you’re losing your feeling of self-determination. Involve those affected in planning and decisions, giving them ownership for the change.

• Uncertainty – people actively avoid change on the basis that the known is better than the unknown. Create an inspiring vision and have clear, simple processes. Share news as soon as you can – it’s OK not to have all the answers.

• No one likes surprises – sudden changes imposed without warning result in resistance. Don’t design changes in secret and announce them all at once. Involve your people in the process and seek their input.

• Everything seems different – routines become automatic and change upsets those routines. Keep as much as you can familiar. And don’t change something for the sake of it.

• Loss of face – change can be interpreted as saying what went before was wrong, or didn’t work. This can make people feel defensive. Celebrate what went before and worked well. Be clear that you’re changing because the environment has changed.

• Concerns about competence – can I do it? Can I adapt? Change can make people feel incapable or sceptical. Especially if it’s a system change. Provide plenty of training and support. Overlap systems to allow for transition.

• More work – change is always more work. And, as per Kanter’s Law, ‘in the middle, everything looks like a failure’. Acknowledge the extra effort people go to.

• Past resentments – when times are good, past grumbles are forgotten. But change can reopen these wounds. Consider how to heal these before you try and move forward.

• Sometimes the threat is real. Change can hurt. Jobs can be lost. New technology takes over from old. Projects get cancelled. Change must be honest, transparent, fair – and fast.

So I say, embrace the IKEA effect! It could be the difference between successfully constructing a Pax wardrobe and bitter divorce.

A version of this blog first appeared on LinkedIn.