“Things Don’t Change - People Do!”

An old song by Billy Joel is a cry out to a loved one - “Don’t go changing” …and “I love you just the way you are!”
Studies show that people resist change because they believe they will lose something of value or fear they will not be able to adapt to the “new”.
However both personal and organizational growth and progress require change!

When organizational change goes wrong it is often because it's being treated purely as an implementation of a new process. There is little or no consideration of the level of “readiness for change” within the organization or of individual implementers.

Readiness for change is the extent to which an individual or individuals are cognitively inclined to accept, embrace, and adopt a particular plan to purposefully alter the status quo (Rafferty et al., 2012: 6).

Our individual readiness for change may be influenced by past experiences with transitions, trauma from failure or lack of support when previous change was implemented.
Our mindset could influence the way we perceive the need for change . How things are now may be “good enough”, and if things are working “why do we need to change them”?
Effective leaders are aware of organizational and individual readiness. Even when readiness is low, effective leaders are able to take the organization and individual implementers through an efficient change process of a) unlearning current understanding and behaviors; b) understanding the need for the change, whether it’s process, structure, policy, or tools and c) learning new content, skills and protocols to move through a change successfully d) implementation of new ideas.

Here’s a real example of an ineffective change which began with good intentions. A new principal hired early during the summer months decided to change the colors within the main office, de-clutter by removing art work and rearrange the furniture. When the office staff came back in September that year, instead of the leader’s anticipated joy and appreciation,  they expressed how displaced and disrespected they felt that their personal belongings and space had been restructured without their input. Even seemingly superficial changes cause reactions.

Successful implementation of any substantial change, requires the organizational leader’s awareness, emotional intelligence, timely communication, resources and training , and ongoing support beyond fullI implementation of a new work plan or process. Things don’t change, people do!
“Change is inevitable; growth is optional!” J. Maxwell