The Lies of Change

Several years ago, The Sunday Times of Ireland held a conference on the issue of Change and their advertisement roared out “Change or Die”… Change books by the score inform the reader that if they resist Change, THEY are the problem. When faced with an organizational Change, if you dare to ask “Why should I change?” you are likely perceived by management as insubordinate.

With all of this nonsense surrounding the issue of Change, is it any wonder that most efforts to implement organizational Change fail miserably? At the root of all these misconceived notions about Change is failure to distinguish between two different types of ‘Change’. In reality, and you will confirm this for yourself in a few minutes, we do not ‘resist change’, we do however ‘resist being changed’. The difference between these two types of Change is not just one of trivial semantics.