Why Your Business Isn't Moving?

Picture this: you're preparing for the annual work summer BBQ. Off to the grocery store you go, and after the purchases, you're pushing a shopping cart with a stuck wheel through an uneven parking lot, loaded with 60 pounds of bottled water and one ripe watermelon. You're giving it everything you've got, but it barely budges. That, my colleague, is inertia, and if you reflect briefly, it might bear a resemblance to your last leadership meeting.

In physics, inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest. It’s Newton’s First Law. An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion, unless acted upon by an external force. But let’s be honest, Sir Isaac could have been describing a typical mid-sized business stuck in old habits, riding on outdated systems, and dodging the discomfort of change like it’s a Monday morning inbox.

Let’s talk about business inertia, what it is, why it’s so hard to break, and how to start applying the right kind of force.

The Comfort of the Status Quo

In organizations, inertia shows up in phrases like:

• “That’s how we’ve always done it.”

• “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

• “We tried that once a decade ago.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. Stability is a beautiful thing. But there’s a fine line between stability and stagnation. In physics, inertia is a neutral force. It doesn’t care whether staying still is helping or hurting. And in business? Same deal.

Most companies don’t even notice they’re stuck. They’ve optimized their Excel files into submission. They’ve got Slack channels with 800 unread messages. They’ve built workarounds on top of workarounds. And deep down, everyone knows it's clunky, but it mostly works, and change feels like a risk.

So, they stay still. Not because it’s working, but because it’s familiar.

Why We Resist

Inertia in business isn’t just about laziness or lack of ambition. It’s wired into how we think and operate. There’s actual science behind this resistance:

• Cognitive load: Change requires energy. New processes mean unlearning old ones and re-learning something new, and our brains are efficiency machines.

• Loss aversion: We fear losing what we know more than we value the possibility of gain.

• Social friction: Change often means challenging someone’s pet project, role, or comfort zone. That’s tricky politics.

• Risk perception: The unknown feels riskier than the status quo, even when the status quo is clearly underperforming.

All of that creates a drag force, not unlike friction, which we’ll explore on another Friday, that keeps teams doing what they did yesterday, and last quarter, and probably back when BlackBerry was still a thing.

Inertia at the Organizational Level

Let’s zoom out a bit.

The more mass an object has, the more inertia it has. Same in business. A two-person startup can pivot in a morning meeting over timbits and donuts. A 200-person company needs two steering committees, a Gantt chart, and at least one company-wide survey before even updating the website.

Larger organizations have more policies, more stakeholders, and more systems with 14-step approval processes that only two people actually understand. These things are all forms of organizational mass, and unless there’s an intentional force applied, that mass doesn’t move.

What Moves the Needle

Here’s the good news. Inertia isn’t permanent. You just need force. The right kind.

In physics, force equals mass times acceleration. In business, we can’t change the mass overnight (you need your people, your structure, your systems). However, we can accelerate and apply force thoughtfully. Here’s how:

1. Create Strategic Tension

If nothing is pushing or pulling, nothing will move. Use data to show the real gap between where you are and where you could be. Make the case with facts and trends, not just intuition. Clarity drives motion.

2. Break Big Change Into Small Wins

Change doesn’t have to be a leap. Sometimes it’s a series of confident steps. Pick a single process to improve. Fix one pain point. Test one new idea. That’s motion. That’s acceleration.

3. Introduce External Energy

Sometimes, the necessary force has to come from outside - a facilitator, a coach, or a fractional leader (I know a guy). External support cuts through internal politics and brings fresh perspective, data, and velocity.

4. Build Momentum with Feedback Loops

Once motion starts, keep it going. Weekly check-ins. Regular review cycles. Data-driven decisions. Just like a rolling ball, motion sustains motion, as long as you’re deliberate.

5. Anchor to Purpose and Values

People resist arbitrary change. But when change is rooted in purpose, in vision, in the “why,” it gets personal and sticky. Structure plus meaning is what makes momentum last.

Inertia Isn’t Bad. It Just Needs Direction.

One final thought: inertia isn’t the villain. It’s just misunderstood.

It’s what keeps a good process running reliably. It’s what allows a well-oiled team to stay focused when shiny objects are everywhere. The goal isn’t to destroy inertia. It’s to redirect it.

In physics, once something’s moving, it takes less energy to keep it moving. That’s what we want. Strategic motion. Momentum with direction. Progress that compounds.

So, if your business feels stuck, neither failing nor really moving forward, it might be time to stop pushing harder and instead apply the right kind of force.

You don’t need to blow everything up. Just get it moving. One clear decision, one small win, one structured action at a time.

Ready to Beat Inertia?

If your team could use some clarity and momentum, that’s what I’m here for. I help businesses go from “it’s fine, I guess” to structured, fast-moving, and aligned. We’ll use data, purpose, and some well-placed external force to get you unstuck and keep you moving.

And no broken shopping carts required.

Happy Physics Friday.