You Must Change or Die!

This is overstated...or is it?

This may not apply to you personally, but it applies to the company for which you work.

There is a natural cycle to every organization.

• Beginning
• Growth
• Plateau
• Decline
• Death

Without intervention in the plateau phase, the organization will eventually decline and die. The intervention, more often than not, will require change. However, organizations are usually resistant to change. There are common reasons that people are reluctant to change. 

1. Fear of losing status or security. Employees work hard to get where they are and change can mean new technologies to learn, more employees to compete with, and many more real and imagined factors.
2. Don't want more work. (aka comfortable with status quo). Status quo often means that the company has found a comfortable place where they can work and maintain their salary and benefits. Change may mean that they may need to work harder or longer.
3. "Don't fix it if its not broken" mentality. This has been the downfall of many companies. The failure of Blockbuster was not anticipating the rise of streaming video. They could have been the industry leader, but now they are just an object lesson.
4. No reward for change. Employees do not want to move from the status quo unless they are convinced that it is needed and that change will be personally rewarding.
5. Fear of the unknown. Change by definition is going from known to unknown. Risk is always present, but failure to change will guarantee ultimate failure. It is easy to criticize change because it is an unknown, and if the employee undermines the change, they can say "I told you so."
6. Having a "herd" mentality. Some people do not resist the change as much as they are just going along with others that do not want change.
7. Lack of trust. Many do not trust the change, the results of change, or the person(s) making the change. Trust is important in every employer-employee relationship, especially in the area of change. The employee that helps the change go smoothly and successfully, will be rewarded. 
8. Poor Communication. Some resist change because the need for change or the change process has not been communicated properly.
9. Loss of control. Every employee reaches a point in their job where the have an element of control. They know their duties and they know what is expected of them daily and they do their jobs. Change means giving up a little control until a new change comes.
10. Not resistant to change per se, but attached to the "old way." Some resisted changing from flip-phones to smart phones. Many do not upgrade operating systems until they are no longer supported. Early adopters of change get rewarded quicker.
11. Resisting the timing, method, or agent of change. Change involves these three elements and resistance to any of these result in resisting change.

Good employees realize that change is inevitable. They look for and embrace change.

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