What Makes Change So Difficult?

What makes change so difficult for some employees?

Answer:
Many changes in business are not difficult … as a radio personality often says, "I can do it with half my brain tied behind my back." Some changes are difficult, no doubt about it.

One concern is that we are making change more difficult by giving it a reputation of difficulty. For example, see the quote below about change coaching (us):

Essentially, Rock said, “The goal of coaching is to change the brain. You’re facilitating self-directed neuroplasticity,” or helping people change their brains.

• Recent discoveries in how the brain functions offer new insights into why change is so difficult for individuals, according to Rock, a faculty member of CIMBA, an international business school in Europe, and author of Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work (HarperCollins, 2006).

I think a part of our job as change consultants is to say that a change at work is not about changing an employee’s life (or brain).  A change at work is about changing a worker’s part in a business play. Nothing more, nothing less.

The last thing we need is to have one of our clients say, “Aha … I know what you guys are doing! You are trying to facilitate self-directed neuroplasticity on me! And I just know the manipulative CEO is behind it!!”

Instead, we are ready for the curtain to rise on the set of the new business play. Places everyone ... It's Showtime!