Set Points and Muscle Memory
The gravitational pull toward a familiar baseline.
Photo by Wietse Jongsma on Unsplash
I caught some sort of virus a few weeks back, and it knocked me out for about 10 days, much longer than my normal recovery time for something like this. As is often the case, my appetite decreased, and I lost weight, even without exercise. With the illness in my rearview mirror, much to my chagrin, my body weight has returned to what it was before I got sick. This “set point” theory is part of the body’s broader effort to maintain homeostasis (internal balance), nudging me back toward a familiar baseline.
I’m sure there is a biological benefit to this (survival, stability, blah, blah, blah), but what a bummer. It’s not like I had the fridge stocked with surplus snacks to make up for the lost calories.
Along with the body’s set point, there is also the concept of neural muscle memory. Like riding a bicycle or tying shoes, this form of muscle memory means quick coordination based on the previous machinery the body and brain have already built.
These set points and muscle memories are also at work in organizations. After significant transformations, transitions, or changes, the culture will revert to its familiar set points. The neural muscle memory of the organization relies on the calluses of its previous coordination.
This is not a flaw. It’s a feature.
Organizations, like bodies, are designed for survival before they are designed for transformation. Stability is rewarded. Familiar rhythms feel safe. Old coordination patterns fire quickly. The system knows how to operate at its previous baseline.
And after a major initiative, leadership change, strategic pivot, or cultural reset, the pullback to normal is almost automatic.
Meetings drift back to their old tone. Decision-making authority re-centers. Risk tolerance narrows. The same voices regain influence. The same habits reassert themselves.
The system is doing what systems do because homeostasis is efficient and muscle memory is fast. But both are indifferent to your strategy.
This is where leaders misdiagnose the problem. They blame attitude. They blame buy-in. They blame middle management. They blame fatigue. The system prefers the familiar.
When stress increases, the organization falls back to its defaults. That’s muscle memory.
And unless you intentionally retrain the system, it will always return to its previous baseline. Which is why real transformation feels exhausting. It’s less about change and more about retraining.
If you want a new strategic direction, you must build new calluses. If you want a new culture, you must rehearse new coordination. If you want a new set point, you must survive long enough at a new baseline for it to become normal.
Otherwise, organizational homeostasis is the Antagonist that will win every time.
The gravitational pull toward a set point is powerful because it’s stabilizing. But what once protected you may now be constraining you.
The Antagonist is already at work. Are you?
Put This Enemy to Work
After your last major change, what quietly returned?
What is your organization’s default set point under stress?
How could you rally as a team against organizational homeostasis?
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Hi, I’m Brad Abare. If the challenges I write about sound familiar, it’s because I spend my time helping executives and their teams work through them. Over the past 30 years, I’ve been a founder, principal, board member, CEO, and chief of staff. If you’re interested in a conversation about working together, I accept a limited number of new engagements each year. You can send me a message here.