The common mantra is that people are afraid of change, and that they will do all they can to avoid it and, instead, to maintain the status quo. While that is probably true to a certain extent, it certainly isn’t the whole story. Quite often people want change initiatives to occur, but other factors prevent them from committing to its success.

 

In the 1977 film, A Bridge Too Far, Robert Redford tells Ryan O’Neal that the best way to take a bridge is from both ends at once. That’s a perfect illustration of how change programmes should be implemented. However, it’s common to find that it only comes from one direction: the management, and that’s because they have failed to communicate not just what needs to happen, but why. The result is that those who are most affected by it have no idea what to do.

 

It’s a natural human tendency to resist what you don’t understand. You can’t expect people to switch from behaving in one way to acting in another without telling them first how it will affect them. And if you don’t know, then you should expect your plans to be rejected. You do exactly the same thing when you resist suggestions to alter your strategic plans. 

 

When people don’t understand the goal, or how it will change their lives, then they are also unable to imagine what it will look like. Inability – the feeling of, “I can’t” is a defence mechanism. They feel unable because they haven’t been enabled. 

 

Pessimism can be traced to two causes.  One is that they’ve seen it all before. It didn’t work then, and you’ve given them no reason to believe that this time will be any different. The second cause is that they can’t see the path that will take them to wherever it is that you want them to go. So not only do they not know where they are going, they also don’t see any way forward from where they are. 

 

Not knowing what you’re aiming for and not knowing how to get there automatically makes the whole process seem to hard achieve. It’s impossible to prepare to do something else if you don’t know what it is.  

 

Apathy is always the result of something else. It develops over time. It occurs when an organization misses the window of opportunity to change. That happens when managers generate enthusiasm for something and then do nothing. And the more often that that occurs, the faster the apathy will set the next time. 

 

When you attempt to force through organizational change without explaining what the eventual outcome will be, without telling people what it will mean for those who will be affected by it the most, without empowering them to carry it out, and without changing the internal structures to make it happen, then it’s only common sense to recognise that people will not only be disinterested in changing what they’re doing, but that they’ll positively resist it.

 

If you can show them the benefits of doing so and make it easy for them to implement the changes that you want, then you should be able to obtain the cooperation that you envisage. 

 

There is one caveat, and that is that the positive outcome you want cannot be presented as the lesser of two evils. It’s worth remembering that when it comes to change, the devil you know is preferred over the one that you don’t. Change initiatives must bring about something that will people’s lives better than what they are right now.