"Change...
we don't like it, we fear it, but we can't stop it from coming. We either adapt to change or we get left behind.
And it hurts to grow, anybody who tells you it doesn't is lying.
But here's the truth: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
And sometimes, oh, sometimes change is good.
Oh, sometimes, change is... everything."
said Dr Meredith Grey in the episode "A Change is Gonna Come" - Grey's Anatomy. The plotline is all about confronting (or not) unfolding circumstances and adapting (or not!).
It is amazing how many big initiatives in organisations large and small come to nothing. Change seems to be harder than we think; we may know change is inevitable and still do nothing about it, or we may deny it all together; but some how it still happens to us. People like Donald Schon and Edgar Schein pioneered thinking about how change happens and people like Peter Senge, Tudor Rickards, etc. have carried on the studies. They demonstrate that change is a complex activity with individual, group and organisational dynamics playing key roles in what is achieved and how it is achieved. My own experiences have led me to conclude that without good and consistent leadership from the top and space for the 'followers ' to play with 'new tools for doing change' individuals often find it hard to understand and identify with the vision, work out what activities are needed to start moving towards the vision, and to find resources to devote to doing those activities... and checking that the results align with the direction we should be moving in.... and then keep doing them. Schein proposed a change model that embraced three stages: unfreezing ->changing ->refreezing; commenting that:
"As most change theories tend to focus on the middle stage only and they cannot account for the inability to produce change in the first place or the inability to maintain the changes that have already been achieved."
I will write about the three stages and link them here [unfreezing -> changing -> refreezing] shortly.
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