From Small Beginnings, Big Change

As I approached the hall where the next Sans Souci Build You graduation would be held, an ambulance siren cut through the hot, damp Indiana air. I wondered if the driver was the program’s newest graduate, already answering the call of his new job. The sound took me back seven years—to when a bag that reeked of rat urine started this unlikely journey.

It’s often in small groups that real change begins. Sometimes at a neighborhood picnic, a church BBQ, or during a road trip—moments when a shared sense that “something needs to change” is born.

For me, it started at a community service project at a local non-profit, Sans Souci. I even wrote in my journal:

“The highlight of the time there was a bag with clothes that smelled like rat urine and had poop in them.”

But the true highlight—though I didn’t know it then—was a conversation around that pile of clothes. We believed Sans Souci could benefit from a new kind of thinking we were piloting at work.

Seven years later, the gears that turned that day reshaped the organization and created the Sans Souci Build You (SSBU) program. And it all began with what in change management we call a Core Message: a simple framework to turn an idea into action.

The Big Why

Why do we need this change? Why now? And why us?

These were the questions we asked when we first gathered—just a few interns, the Sans Souci leadership team, and me. Everyone around the table must be able to answer them honestly; that shared clarity is what gives momentum to new ideas.

A Lofty What

What do we want to achieve?

Stephen R. Covey calls this the “first creation”: the image of success everyone in the group holds in their minds. After early conversations, our goal crystallized:

“In the end, we’ll know we’ve been successful when participants have the self-confidence to set and achieve goals.”

At that time, 80% of employees quit before the six-month mark, we had no funding, and none of us had built employee development programs before. But we had the vision.

The Whos

In business, we’d call them stakeholders. But it’s simpler than that: whose lives will this change affect?

With an employee base of fewer than 45, it was clear:

“The Whos we need to affect are employees who are out of crisis and could find greater success outside the organization.”

The Biggest Wall

Every change effort hits barriers. But the most important one isn’t external; it’s behavioral.

“If you want minor improvements, work on behavior. For quantum improvements, change paradigms.” — Stephen R. Covey

At Sans Souci, the biggest wall was belief: employees didn’t see themselves as worthy of something better. Many had been failed by systems meant to help them. We described it this way:

“The Biggest Wall is that they may feel they are not worthy of a different outcome than their current situation.”

Two Ohs and One Aha!

Change, like chemistry, requires three things: collision, energy, and the right alignment.

As our team reflected, we saw the dots connect. The “Aha!” moment came when we realized the answer wasn’t skill-building alone—it was helping employees believe they could change themselves, their environment, and their future.

Core Message

This belief became our rallying cry:

Believe, We do.

A reminder that even if participants doubted themselves, we wouldn’t.

The program grew into Sans Souci Build You (SSBU). Last month, the third class graduated. And when one graduate—now an EMT—had to leave mid-ceremony to answer an emergency call, it felt like the perfect symbol of what we’d built: real, living change in action.

What will you start?

Change doesn’t have to begin with a PowerPoint, a big budget, or even a plan. It can begin around a table, a pile of old clothes—or a single question: Why not us? Why not now?

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead