Change is a fact of life in today's organizations. It takes many different forms: Downsizing, Work force reductions, Introduction of new technology, Shift in strategy, Decentralization and Organizational de-layering, New emphasis on quality or innovation, or the Implementation of a new team-based management.
Whatever the name, sometimes the particular change is optional, but often, it is unavoidable. In
fact, to survive, organizations and individuals need to not only to react to changes, they need to embrace it.
If it is necessary for us to adapt to
change, why is it that many changes are doomed before they are launched? In some cases they fail to accomplish what they are meant to do, or they cost so much that their value is compromised, or they take so long to implement that an opportunity is missed, and everyone is left discouraged and confused. In many cases, the difficulty was not with the technical aspects of the change, but with the people who have to make the change work.
For a change to actually happen, people must first let go of the old way of doing things, live through a crazy in-between time when they feel confused and frustrated, until they can actually create and identify with a new way of dealing with things. Unless this transition process is handled successfully, all the careful planning in the world will matter little: everything will remain essentially the same. Unless people go through the inner process of transition, people won’t develop the new behaviour and attitudes the change requires.
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