Advocate Adoption, Not Termination

One of Robert Behn's "dozen hints for the would-be terminator": people find it much easier to say yes to a new thing than to the death of an old one, so frame the change as adopting the replacement. Other hints include: don't float trial balloons, recruit an outsider to do the ending, buy off the beneficiaries, and accept short-term cost increases.

Source: Behn, "How to terminate a public policy" (1978).

See also: Policy Termination, Exit Champion, Endings First. From How do organizations throw (AI) stuff away?

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# Oct 23, 2026
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