Michael Bremer
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Joy Over Fear: A Simple System to Make Change Stick
Typography hero image reading Lead with Joy Make Change Stick, Joy highlighted in a white oval over a softly blurred sunlit desk background in warm brand orange, conveying leadership, purpose, and habits for lasting change.

When Fear Fails, Try Joy: Motivating Change That Actually Sticks

“Joy is a more powerful motivator than fear.” This is not a tagline, it is how real people make real change. In Learn to See the Invisible, Michael Bremer shows how Dr. Dean Ornish helped heart patients stay with tough lifestyle changes by shifting focus from the fear of dying to the joy of living. People kept at it when they felt better, walked without pain, and reconnected with the parts of life that mattered. Fear faded, joy lasted .

The Shift That Makes Change Stick

Bremer is clear. Behavior change mostly happens when you speak to feelings, then translate purpose into simple, visible practices that guide daily work. The aim is not to rearrange structure, it is to change what people do and how they decide. As John Kotter put it, the core challenge is changing behavior, not clever strategy or culture talk. Bremer’s path turns that into action: clarify a unifying purpose, build trust, and use public visuals that keep everyone honest and engaged .

The Golden Nugget

Fear spikes urgency, then it fades. Joy builds staying power. Anchor change in a purpose people actually want, then make progress visible in public. Start by changing how you see your world, then design your environment so the right actions are easier to take, today and tomorrow .

Make Joy Practical: A Three‑Step Playbook

1) Name the joy inside your purpose

Purpose works when it pulls you forward. Richard Sheridan realized that his company’s deeper why was not only to reduce “suffering” for software users, it was to “return Joy to the development of software.” That clarity helped turn a noble idea into daily behavior leaders could own and measure .

Pressure‑test your purpose the way Bremer suggests. Ask “why” at least three times. Go see how your customer actually uses your outputs. Talk to your customer’s customer. Share your metrics with them and learn how your measures affect their work. Then check if your goals and metrics align to your purpose or if they simply count activity. Purpose should be meaningful, and it should drive behavior, not vanity counts .

2) Link purpose to one or two concrete habits

Translate intent into a small, repeatable behavior. Bremer provides a simple new habit template. Define your purpose, spell out the behavior, and set a quick reflection rhythm. If you can, meet with a small peer group weekly or bi‑weekly to share plans, progress, and challenges. If you go solo, keep showing up with tenacity. You can do this .

3) Make progress public, simple, and fast to update

Public visuals are thinking tools, not decorations. Bremer’s standard is crisp. You should see key issues in ten seconds, and daily updates should take less than ten minutes. Make the purpose of your visual clear, decide what information belongs, and spell out the behavior or decision the visual should drive. Try it for a week or a month, then evaluate what changed and evolve it. Keep it meaningful to you, and invite suggestions from your team .

When visuals tell you if you are winning or losing against meaningful targets, they create shared accountability and better decisions in real time. People know what matters, where to focus, and what to improve next .

Two Stories That Prove the Point

  • From control to contribution, Autoliv
    Autoliv leaders saw they were the approval bottleneck for thousands of small ideas. They stopped requiring management signoff for low‑risk changes and pushed decisions to teams, with engineers guarding quality and process integrity. Implemented ideas jumped from about 12,000 to more than 100,000. The shift worked because it was safe to act and easy to see progress. People owned improvements because the system made ownership normal .

  • From assumption to actual reality, Jess
    Jess wanted her project work to be outstanding and used for a long time. Over several tries, she learned what most of us learn. New behaviors take time to trust. She slowed down, engaged people, and adapted after each attempt. The lesson is steady and hopeful, change grows through repeated experiments and visible evidence you can learn from together .

Why Joy Works When Fear Does Not

Bremer shares a striking example. Many bypass patients could avoid repeat surgery by changing habits, yet most did not. Ornish’s team helped people succeed by recasting the reason to change. The point was not living longer out of fear, it was feeling better and reclaiming normal joys. “Joy is a more powerful motivator than fear.” Leaders can use this same pivot. Speak to a better future and make it feel real now, then back it with clear purpose and simple visuals that guide daily choices .

He also urges leaders to start with themselves. Ray Dalio put words to this kind of shift: “I needed to let go of the Joy of Being Right and replace it with the Joy of Learning What is True.” That perspective opens space for listening, learning, and better decisions together .

Lead With a Future People Want

If this idea resonates, you will also appreciate a related read that echoes Bremer’s theme. Change your stance from being right to making truth and progress visible. Read: Change Your Perspective: Trade Being Right for Truth.

Start This Week

  • Rewrite your purpose in plain words you want to live with. Aim for Sheridan‑level clarity, then ask why it matters to your customer’s customer. Adjust until it points to a specific behavior you can see and measure .
  • Pick one habit that expresses that purpose. Use Bremer’s new habit template, and set a short weekly reflection to review what you learned and what to try next .
  • Build one public visual you can update in under ten minutes. Post it where work happens, and decide in advance which behavior it should drive. After two weeks, review what changed, then evolve it together .

A Closing Nudge

Joy is not soft, it is specific. It is a purpose you can say out loud, a small habit you can practice today, and a signal of progress your whole team can see. Let joy set the direction, then make it visible and repeatable. What is the piece of joy worth pursuing so fully that you will make it public and practice it until it sticks ?