Countermeasures for Type 2 Inertia: The Cost of Moving Forward

Agreeing on the need to change is the first battle you must win. The next is defeating the objection: “We can’t adopt these new ways of working.”

This type of inertia isn’t refusal. It’s paralysis born from a focus on the “how” — a perception that the cost of developing new skills is too high. Here is how to lower it.


1. Lack of clarity about future capabilities.

Vague mandates (e.g. “become AI-driven”) create anxiety, not action. Countermeasure: Map the capabilities you’ll need. Use a Wardley Map to identify the exact skills (e.g. data pipelining, prompt engineering) you’ll need next. Then invest in training early, while costs are low as the technologies are still emerging.


2. Fear of a crippling skills gap.

Waiting for talent to become affordable guarantees you’ll fall behind. Countermeasure: Build internal capability now. There are many ways to access the skills you need without breaking the bank — hackathons, conferences, pilot projects. These turn your team from spectators into pioneers of new capabilities.


3. Dread of the partnership timeline.

Forging new supplier networks from scratch can feel like a multi-year distraction. Countermeasure: Explore before you commit. Use those hackathons, conferences and pilot projects to identify key players. Then, create focused centres of excellence around those relationships, slashing the future “time-to-trust.”


4. Resistance to invalidating past practices.

New methods make old "best practices" obsolete, threatening hard-won expertise. Countermeasure: Legitimise change with history. Remind leaders that today's standards (e.g. agile, remote work) were once radical disruptions. Success requires skating to where the puck is going, not to where it has been.


Your goal isn’t to eliminate cost, but to make the investment in the future feel inevitable and manageable. Use the attached table to diagnose and overcome these sources of inertia.

Next: Overcoming type 3 inertia: “We’re not sure this new way is better”.

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