The Big Change Management Lie

Braden Kelley is an innovation and change specialist, the author of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, an InnovationExcellence.com co-Founder, and is the creator of the Change Planning Toolkit™ and a book on the best practices and next practices of organizational change (January 2016 release).

  Change Management   Communications Management   Talent Management  

The idea that people always resist change is a lie, and it is extremely damaging to organizations seeking to increase their organizational agility. The truth is that people only resist changes that they either do not understand or for which they do not interpret there to be benefits great enough to offset the costs of their participation. The truth is also that the natural response to a potential change in an organization is greatly impacted by the level of trust in an organization.

While it is a lie that change resistance is inevitable, it is true that executing change is hard. If it wasn’t, 70 percent of change efforts wouldn’t fail, but they do. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that most change efforts are communicated not explained.

Let’s look at definitions of both words from Dictionary.com to see the root of this difference:

• Communication: “A document or message imparting news, views, information, etc.”
• Explanation: “A mutual declaration of the meaning of words spoken, actions, motives, etc., with a view to adjusting a misunderstanding or reconciling differences.”

You’ll notice here a big difference between the two mindsets--seeking to communicate versus seeking to explain. When you focus on explaining the change, you are focusing on ensuring …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.