If you want to make enemies, try to change something. Change, no matter what scale it is on, can be a source of stress and anxiety for many. However, it’s common for change management practitioners to view resistance to change as an irrational barrier to progress. Another school of thought is that resistance to change is a social process that can strengthen changes and help to eliminate undesirable change.
The fact remains that change is necessary in all organizations. But, it is the way change is initiated which can so greatly vary. It can be forced upon companies by outside forces or just come from a realization that the company may be falling behind the times. In this way, change management might be quite beneficial to an organization. Organizations that have learned how to transform themselves through effective leadership and strategic control are more likely to survive and prosper. The dilemma is that most people hate change and love it at the same time and what they really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
The good news is that God has a plan for your life to prosper. If we trust in God and allow the change to grow us to become more like Jesus Christ in how we respond and act, then we are promised that all things will work together for good for those who love Him and keep His commandments!
The following thought-provoking quotes relate to change management including resistance to change, acceptance and change strategy.
- “One of the reasons so many celebrities keep going in and out of rehab is that they leave out the critical element to lasting change: God.” – Unknown
- “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” — Niccolo Machiavelli
- “Change has its enemies.” — Robert Kennedy
- “He who rejects change is the architect of decay.” — Harold Wilson
- “Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.” — Samuel Johnson
- “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” — Charles Kettering
- “God supplies everything you need for successful change, and when you make changes with his help, it says changed.” – Unknown
- “It is always easier to talk about change than to make it.” — Alvin Toffler
- “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things.” — Machiavelli
- “The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.” — H. G. Wells
- “When you feel weak in the face of change, God is omnipotent, or all-powerful. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” the Bible says. (Romans 8:31, NIV) Knowing the invincible God is on your side gives you tremendous confidence.” – Unknown
- “Paralyze resistance with persistence.” — Woody Hayes
- “Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.” — Frances Hesselbein
- “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic – Peter Drucker
- “The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.” — John P. Kotter
- “Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business.” — Mark Sanborn
- “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” — Woodrow Wilson
Don’t make change harder than it has to be. Do it the right way. Ask God for help.
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Interesting
Unfortunately, I have experienced any number of “change managers” using tallies of enemies as a metric of success. It is a consequence but not one to be pursued.
Here are some thoughts on change to consider:
When change is successful, we look back and call it growth.
When change is not successful, we look back and call it grief.
Change isn’t positive or negative – it’s neutral.
It’s how we react to change that matters.
There’s a misconception that leaders like change and followers don’t.
The truth is leaders don’t like change either – unless it’s their idea.
There are three times when people change:
1. When they hurt enough that they have to change
2. When they learn enough that they want to change
3. When they know enough that they are able to change
Be willing to learn from the changes in life – which are inevitable. You can learn from most failures, setbacks and disappointments if you learn to fail forward.
Lastly, learn to be your best friend. Success or failure doesn’t define you. Learn to be your own cheerleader – have healthy self-talk!
If you want to make more enemies, change things without using a careful approach that considers the needs and requirements of all stakeholders in process. Brassring might be a great example. As a design, engineering, consulting, and construction organization, we should be really, really good at implementing change, but we don’t always perform as good as we’re capable of.
I don’t mind the change – it’s inevitable. What I do mind is change that is rolled out 1) without any communication, 2) without any forethought as to who will be affected, and 3) changes that are not beta-tested ahead of time. Change can be good, but it needs to be communicated and managed properly with minimal impact to the end user.
And, If I may critique what I have experienced about the office move as an example. This is not to comment on open offices, but on my perception the process.
My sense is that some audiences feel that their concerns are being ignored or swept under the carpet, that they are being told that “you will feel better once you move in”, and that they are being herded, not heard, or engaged.
A specific example is the question about the study that shows exposure to open office noise generates higher levels of epinephrine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11055149). There are three possible responses to this:
(1) “We disagree with the study and here is our counter-evidence”,
(2) “We agree with the study and here are the specific measures we have taken to address it” (and not “We think you will all suddenly get super-quiet”), or
(3) “We actually don’t give a damn”.
If the answer is not explicitly 1 or 2, people will, and actually have, assumed 3 is the case. Not a healthy or productive place to be.
John Kotter proposed an eight step guide to reduce the risk of change failure and improve buy-in:
1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Build a guiding coalition
3. Form a startegic vision and initiiatives
4. Enlist a volunteer army
5. Enable action by rmoving barriers
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Sustain acceleration
8. Institute change
I recommend his book ‘Leading Change’.
A while back I had some training on Change Management based on the ADKAR model:
Awareness of the business reasons for change. Awareness is the goal/outcome of early communications related to an organizational change
Desire to engage and participate in the change. Desire is the goal/outcome of sponsorship and resistance management
Knowledge about how to change. Knowledge is the goal/outcome of training and coaching
Ability to realize or implement the change at the required performance level. Ability is the goal/outcome of additional coaching, practice and time
Reinforcement to ensure change sticks. Reinforcement is the goal/outcome of adoption measurement, corrective action and recognition of successful change
The goals and outcomes defined by ADKAR are sequential and cumulative, they must be achieved in order for effective and sustainable change to take place.
Seems like it could have helped here a little
Reblogged this on Guyanese Online.