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MORE ABOUT REACTION TO CHANGE
In managing change, you should include plenty of opportunities for the people involved in the change to discuss the change and how it is affecting them. They must reach their own conclusions about the advantages of the technology. You can provide support, information, and guidance, but, most important, you must listen.
A third important principle for managing change is that people truly understand only what they have experienced. Their involvement is critical to success. If you are thinking about installing new technology, ideally the people who must use the technology should
participate in the decision to acquire the technology in the first place. If that is not possible, then at a minimum they would participate in decisions concerning the implementation of the change. How will training be conducted? How will the technology be installed? What procedures will be changed? How will the technology be first used? The point is that the more people are involved in making these decisions, the less likely you are to encounter significant resistance. In short, people don't resist their own ideas.
A fourth principle of human behavior that we think is important is that whenever you introduce change, you must be concerned not only with its impact on the individual, but also its impact on the work group. People meet many of their personal needs through membership in groups. Acceptance by others is important for most of us. We all like to feel that we are part of something. Groups give us protection and security. They give us identity, recognition and status. Groups define what behavior is acceptable or unacceptable. The group itself and its leadership - both formal and informal - has a strong influence over members of the group.
If the group as a whole supports the change, then individuals in the group are more likely to go along even if they are personally opposed. On the other hand, if the group and group leaders resist the change, individual members are likely to join in that resistance
and the resistance is likely to be stronger. If we are to manage change, we must anticipate the reaction of the group as a whole. We must know the group leaders and anticipate their reaction, since their support is important.
As a final principle of human behavior, we must recognize that in reaching a decision to support or oppose change, people are not necessarily rational. Too often, we assume that given all of the information and alternatives, people will arrive at the same logical conclusion about the advantages of the change that we reached. Yet those who have studied how people reach decisions tell us that even when provided with all of the necessary information, people often ignore much of it.
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