Wharton@Work

January 2026 | 

Ambition to Action: How to Make Change Stick

Ambition to Action: How to Make Change Stick

Executives are rarely short on drive. They set ambitious targets, lead teams through complexity, and deliver the performance that keeps their organizations moving forward. But when it comes to their own goals, whether improving how they manage time, coach others, or build new habits, the path is often far less straightforward. It makes for a striking paradox: many of the individuals who excel at leading high-stakes efforts find it surprisingly hard to make their own behavior change stick. Motivation isn’t the issue. Capacity isn’t the issue. The real challenge is closing the gap between intention and action, a gap Wharton behavioral scientist Katy Milkman has spent her career working to understand.

Milkman, co-founder and co-director of Penn’s Behavior Change for Good Initiative, has shown across decades of research that even highly capable people underestimate how much structure meaningful change requires. As she writes in How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, “The obstacles that stand between you and your goals are often not what you think they are.” Leaders often assume that wanting something badly enough will automatically translate into new behavior. But, as her work makes clear, “change doesn’t work that way.”

Turn Aspirations into Concrete Plans

One of Milkman’s central findings is that vague goals are extremely difficult to act on. Promises like “I’ll spend more time coaching my team” or “I’ll be more strategic this quarter” rely on memory, motivation, and real-time decision making — three resources that evaporate quickly in a busy workday.

Milkman encourages leaders to use implementation intentions: clear, specific commitments that define when and where the behavior will happen. “A plan that spells out when and where you’ll act in advance can dramatically increase your odds of success,” she explains. Instead of aspiring to coach more, leaders can schedule standing monthly one-on-ones with a short agenda prepared in advance. Instead of trying to “think more strategically,” they can block recurring time on their calendar for high-level work and treat that block as immovable.

Breaking down larger goals into smaller milestones also matters. Early successes create a sense of momentum, which in turn reinforces motivation and signals that the effort is paying off.

Milkman’s research also highlights the value of anticipating obstacles. Thinking through likely disruptions in advance and planning a response (for example, “If my afternoon planning time gets moved, then I’ll protect a morning slot tomorrow”) keeps a small setback from derailing an entire habit. The point isn’t perfection; it’s consistency.

Design an Environment That Supports Follow-Through

Even the best plans are vulnerable if they depend on willpower alone. People who reliably reach their goals often do so because they structure their environments to make the desired behaviors easier and the unproductive ones harder.

One of her well-known concepts is temptation bundling: pairing something you want to do with something you should do. As she explains, “You’ll enjoy your guilty pleasure more when it’s paired with the thing you know you should do, and you’ll do more of the thing you should do because it’s paired with something you enjoy.” For leaders, this might mean reserving a conference room for strategic thinking sessions or listening to a favorite podcast only during a workout or commute.

Environmental cues play a powerful role as well. Protecting strategic-thinking time might involve turning off notifications, closing distracting tabs, or using scheduling tools that make certain hours unavailable. If coaching is a priority, leaders can pre-schedule conversations before their calendars become crowded. Milkman stresses that “the best way to change behavior is to make the desired behavior as easy as possible.” Thoughtful design helps ensure the right path is the one with the least friction.

Commitment devices can also help. This might include sending a weekly progress update to a mentor, announcing a deadline publicly, or agreeing with colleagues to revisit progress at the next team meeting. “Committing yourself in advance to a penalty if you fail can be extremely effective,” Milkman writes, though formal penalties are rarely necessary in professional settings. The simple act of creating accountability can significantly strengthen follow-through.

These strategies reflect a deeper truth in Milkman’s work: change succeeds when the environment, rather than sheer personal effort, does most of the heavy lifting.

Use Timing to Your Advantage: The Power of Fresh Starts

Timing influences motivation more than many leaders realize. Milkman’s research on the Fresh Start Effect shows that people are especially motivated to pursue goals immediately after landmarks such as the start of a quarter, a birthday, a promotion, or even a Monday. “Fresh starts give us the sense of a clean slate,” she explains. “We feel separated from our past failures, and that makes us more optimistic about our ability to change.”

Leaders can use this insight to increase the likelihood that new habits take hold. The beginning of a fiscal year might be the moment to launch a coaching routine. The start of a product cycle can be the cue for building new cross-functional practices. An anniversary in a role can serve as a natural point for recommitting to leadership development.

These moments matter because they encourage identity shifts. A leader can move from “someone who wants to coach more” to “someone who consistently invests in developing others.” At the same time, Milkman notes that fresh starts can be fragile: interruptions in the early days of a new habit can prompt people to abandon the effort. Protecting early wins by ensuring the first week or two are particularly robust is often what determines whether a change gains traction.

Making Goal Achievement Predictable

Milkman’s findings underscore a critical point: following through on your goals is not simply a matter of discipline or desire. It requires systems and structures that support the behaviors you want to repeat. Leaders who reliably achieve their goals tend to share a few patterns:

  • They get specific about when, where, and how they will act
  • They break big ambitions into manageable steps that create early momentum
  • They design their environments to make good choices easier
  • They use accountability to stay on track
  • They choose key moments to launch important changes

Building the capacity to reach your goals doesn’t require becoming a different person. It requires designing a context in which following through becomes the natural outcome. With the right structure in place, goals stop being aspirational and start becoming achievable in a predictable, sustainable way.