For the nth time, I caught myself regularly reminding members in a meeting. ” Update me when you encounter this situation.”, ” Remember to always call back the customer if you have their missed call.”, ” Submit regular reports before Friday on so and so”.

And I found out over the years that these reminders were never taken heed. The person probably disliked doing it, or find it too big an interruption to his regular flow of work to change already his ways. We are all creatures of habit.

And I remember also all the gentle reminders we give to friends. ” Dont’ eat too much fat.”, ” Exercise regularly.”, ” Don’t watch too much TV”, or ” Stop Smoking”. And you find that you keep repeating same over and over, and while your friend would desist eating too much at that particular meal, or you succeed in them not lighting up that cigarette at that moment in time time ( but you are sure they will light up later), reminders are almost of no use.

If you want to really have a change in process in business that overcomes the inertia of habit ( if you really feel a serious change is necessary) , you have to do two things — sit down and come up with a serious plan that goes beyond reminders, and really focus on implementing such change ( much akin of putting the person seriously on diet or quitting smoking on a real rigid plan), or simply do the other — change the person concerned.

From my experience, you cannot count on the person creating the problem to be the one to solve the problem too.