Change: What Gets In The Way?

Defending the status quo.

• "That will never work."
   
• "... That said, the labor laws make it difficult for us to do a lot of the suggestions [you] put out. And we do live in a lawsuit oriented society.""
   
• "Can you show me some research that demonstrates that this will work?"

These are just a few of the real-life quotes about defending the status quo from a Seth Godin post that I saved about six years ago. Given that our work here always includes organizational or individual change, we've heard most of them more than once. How about you?

Tip: When you hear any one of these, ask this question: "Tell me specifically what information you have that supports why that won't work in this situation?"

a. Sometimes there is enough evidence to show that certain changes can't be productively initiated at a specific time and place. Hope is not a strategy.

b. If there is insufficient evidence, then ask the question "If you were in charge--and had to do it--what would you do to make "it" happen anyway?"

Help the individual(s) begin to focus on solutions instead of problems.

 

Photo: www.bigstock.com

Comments

[Hosting]

Great informative blog! I found lots of necessary info from your blog. Just bookmarked your blog for more explore! Thanx a lot for sharing.

[Halo Web Design]

It’s difficult to get knowledgeable people today on this subject, but you sound like you know what you are talking about. Thanks for this informative post.

[John Murphy]

Thanks for this. One question I find helpful to ask is - if you do not change anything, what will be the result? are you happy with that?

[Colin Gautrey]

Resistance to change is often rooted in the emotional response rather than the logic of the situation. I wrote a piece recently exploring the fallacy of rational argument - looking at some research which demonstrated that appealing at an emotional level is far more likely to achieve the influence you want, especially when combined with logic. Logic along rarely achieve more than compliance. So, the questions you pose are good, and I would advocate adding a little motivation too.