Nudging a juggernaut: part three – escaping the status quo

In summary:

• Status quo bias can hold back transformation programmes by keeping teams locked into familiar ways of working.
• Common causes include fear of change, pressure to deliver quickly, and the belief that vision-led work is optional.
• Practical solutions like storytelling, small experiments and co-design help teams shift focus towards long-term, human-centred outcomes.

Welcome to the final instalment of our three-part series, ‘Nudging a juggernaut’, where we explore the ways in which common cognitive biases – the way we think – can prevent transformation programmes delivering human-centred outcomes. 

The three biases we’re exploring are:

1. Problem naivety
2. Tunnelling
3. Status quo bias

We’ve already picked apart problem naivety (not noticing that the vision has been sidelined) and tunnelling (where focus on what’s urgent distracts from the end-goal).

We now turn to perhaps the most deeply embedded trap of all: status quo bias.

What is status quo bias?

Status quo bias is the tendency to stick with what’s familiar – even, or perhaps especially, during change programmes that are meant to shake things up. In transformation, this shows up as teams clinging to traditional processes, old habits, and “safe” approaches, often because these seem less risky or simply more efficient. Ironically, while these programmes exist to deliver change, the machinery that powers them can become finely tuned to avoid disruption – at least to itself.

Sticking with the status quo is efficient and it reduces risk. Both those things are good! Changes to scope or requirements are the enemy of project management’s holy trinity: time, cost and quality. So paradoxically, even though programmes are all about enacting change, for these large teams to work efficiently, they avoid change themselves. Sticking to what works derisks the delivery.

Why does it happen?

Status quo bias isn’t just resistance for resistance’s sake. Some of the underlying, psychological drivers include:

• Perceived effectiveness: for project managers and technical colleagues – who often make up the bulk of change programme teams – the familiar is comfortable. Efficient. Low risk. It helps control time, cost, and quality. There’s a natural defensiveness in relying on the tried and tested, particularly when success has been achieved before. The ‘if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’ mentality prevails. People naively see the status quo as ‘not broken’.
• Change as a threat: when challenged to deliver human-centred outcomes or rethink the “why” behind their “how” and “what”, some teams may feel baffled, or even threatened, especially when expertise and reputation are on the line. People can hear criticism in the ‘opportunity to do things differently’, and feel devalued – which doesn’t usually support a growth mindset.
• Vision feels “extra”: if the vision or human-centred design feels like a layer on top of the “real work”, the instinct is to see it as distracting or even scope-creep, rather than integral. Colleagues may be cynical about whether leaning into the vision is necessary or value-adding, and mistrust people who are evangelical about the vision but don’t speak the native language of time, cost and quality. They’re waiting to be convinced it’s anything more than a veneer of nice words.

As one seasoned Service Designer observed: “When I’ve tried to champion human outcomes, I’m met with objections like ‘We’ve run dozens of successful projects without this before. I’m not hearing what’s changed to necessitate this.’ I took it personally at first, then took a step back to realise that it’s the idea of working in a different way they were rejecting, not me.”

So we end up with a situation where the onus is on a handful of vision-converts to convince everyone else that, perhaps, human-centricity may reap a better result. And that it’s not in conflict with good programme management – in fact, quality is utterly compromised if you see the vision as ‘extra’ to everything we know about efficient, risk-managed delivery!

In short, the status-quo bias happens because people don’t understand that the biggest risk to programme success is this: neglecting the vision.

The danger: innovation stalled in plain sight

The result? Even when a bold, vision-first approach offers the promise of a better, more valuable outcome, delivery teams fall back on requirement-checking, process adherence, and existing practices. Hopes for meaningful, human-centred change end up quietly sinking beneath the familiar routines of governance, reporting and testing. The “why” is lost. The transformation delivers change – just not the one the organisation truly needs.

“You end up with a sophisticated solution that wasn’t quite what was needed. A really good answer to the wrong question.”

Recognising status quo bias at work

Does any of this sound familiar?

• “Sounds interesting, but we have to deliver what’s in the requirements, that’s what we’re paid to do.”
• Changes to established requirements and processes are met with suspicion or concern for delivery risk.
• Resistance isn’t always vocal; it’s often silence, inaction, or patterns of decision-making that “default to comfort”. Polite indifference can be quietly pervasive.
• Vision discussions are treated as scope-creep or an afterthought, not integral to success. Or at very least, ‘someone else’s job’.
• Teams struggle to see how new approaches relate to the ways they know how to deliver. Human-centricity is seen as an additional workstream, not a lens through which the whole solution holds together.

How to nudge people to escape the status quo

You can’t break status quo bias by simply telling people to ‘be bolder’ or ‘think bigger’ – that’s not going to sound sensible (or actionable), to people for whom the status quo is synonymous with efficiency and risk reduction! Instead, try these nudges to help people shift their perspective to see the vision as enabling effective, de-risked delivery:

1. Harness the familiar: rather than trying to convert colleagues to your way of thinking, take an interest in their priorities. Ask questions that help them notice where human-centred is already implicit; create space for them to realise how vision-first thinking enhances their priorities, especially quality. Come at the conversation as a curious, non-threatening peer, not the expert: “I wonder, might there be a risk around customer outcomes?
2. Make the vision invaluable: if you suspect colleague sees the vision as abstract, intangible and irrelevant to their role, bring it back to the programme KPIs. Gently suggest that most of them – directly or indirectly – depend on human outcomes. Use storytelling and real user experiences from customers or colleagues to bring to life how vision-first focus increases the likelihood of successful delivery.
3. Flip resistance into evidence: if colleagues are resisting new ways of thinking on the grounds it’s risky or unproven, reason alone is unlikely to win them over. They have proof that traditional methods work… so help them find evidence that human-centricity works! Start with small, low-risk “safe experiments” that test new ways of working within existing structures. Focus on tiny changes that demonstrate their value and build confidence.
4. Champion collaboration: accept that some resistance is healthy and often rooted in expertise. Instead of pushing back, partner with vision-converts and skeptics to co-design new approaches so they work in context. Encourage and celebrate steps towards human-centricity – hold lightly to your own ideas of how to embed the vision in the programme, to create space for this being ‘everyone’s job’.

You may have noticed that some of these ideas are a blend of nudging – influencing how someone thinks, to change how they behave – and something more radical. We’ve found that, if status-quo bias is taking hold of the whole programme, you need to go deeper than nudging individual’s mindsets. This is where ‘rewiring’ the programme, or juggernaut, comes in – harnessing the familiar inner-workings of a programme to ensure the vision is prioritised.

Sometimes starting with what is familiar and proving the relevance of the human-centred vision in this trusted context, proves that it’s not ‘unsafe’ to escape the status quo. Your ‘efficient, risk-reducing’ methods can also deliver great outcomes for customers and colleagues too.

As a participant on one of our workshops observed: “I realised that trying to ‘sell’ a bigger, better way of working felt too alien for some – but weaving the vision into conversations people already understood created a bridge to new ways of thinking.”

Final thoughts

Status quo bias is a natural – often helpful – instinct. It’s certainly more efficient than reinventing the wheel every month! But in transformation, it can quietly drain the energy and possibility from human-centred design and lasting impact. The art is to meet people where they are, anchor change in the comfort of the familiar, and gently expand the boundaries of what feels safe.

With this, our nudging a juggernaut trilogy comes to a close. Whether you’re battling problem naivety, tunnelling, or status quo bias, remember: meaningful transformation isn’t about seismic shifts overnight. It can start with small nudges, carried out together, that keep human purpose, curiosity, and learning at the heart of change. Model humility and curiosity, create space for colleagues to realise how the vision enables quality delivery, and be vision-converts’ biggest cheerleader.

Want to go beyond nudging? Join us at the SDinGov conference for a workshop on ‘re-wiring the juggernaut’, for practical advice on how to harness the inner workings of a programme, to reclaim focus on human-centred outcomes!

Let’s keep the conversation going – and let’s nudge the juggernaut together.

This series is inspired by workshops and lunch & learn sessions with practitioners and transformation leaders from Sopra Steria and beyond, March 202