Making Change Work: Practical Ways for Overcoming
Human Resistance to Change
by Brien Palmer

We all know that many changes–introduced with great fanfare–fail to meet the goals that their sponsors envisioned.

Changes that fail usually do not do so because of technical reasons, that is, because there was something inherently flawed about the change itself. They usually fail because of human reasons: that is, because the promoters of the change did not attend to the healthy, real, and predictable reactions of normal people to disturbances in their routine.

These sorts of failures create an incredibly high cost in time, productivity and morale. They also undercut the legitimate business objectives that the change was meant to engender. For example, one manufacturer attempted to replace several disjointed software systems with one integrated ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. Because of poor project management, the user community was insufficiently involved in the planning stages, and the project failed dramatically. Opponents then said "Told you…we just can't do an ERP in our business." In fact, having an ERP was a great idea-the project failed because of poor "change-management" practices. But it took years for the organization to recover and install an ERP successfully.

This human tendency to want consistency–to "resist" change, as it is somewhat unfortunately termed-is actually healthy, in the balance. Without consistency, life would fall out of control and into chaos. We would be unable to predict people's behaviors, and establish our own routines and positive behavioral patterns. Thank goodness for the steadying force of our own behavioral inertia.

However, this same steadying force can work against us when we try to introduce a change. People tend not to want to deviate from behaviors that are working for them.

Why do they not want to change, when the need for change is so clear to you? In fact, it is precisely because the need for change is not clear to them. It is often said that people don't resist change so much as they resist being changed. So our job is clear: in a nutshell, we have to explain why the affected people should want to change. We have to convey the same understanding and enthusiasm that you and your team have. We have to cultivate readiness, not resistance.

Making Change Work: Practical Ways for Overcoming Human Resistance to Change was written for precisely this purpose. It provides a simple model for managing change, and many simple tools to use to make sure that your project succeeds. These tools come from real-life experience, and are illustrated with real examples from real companies.

For more information about this topic, including how to purchase the book, please visit Click here

Brien Palmer is a managing principal of InterLINK.

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