The first thing people want to know when a change is proposed is why this change is necessary. If you don’t have a very good answer, then they will not buy into your change initiative. Statistics show that having a good percentage of supporters at the outset of a change initiative is strongly associated with success.
Don’t believe me? Then just think about the constant “why” questions your child may be plaguing you with. Children want to know why they should eat that vegetable, why making their bed is necessary, why they have to go to bed now, why they cannot watch that television show. Adults may be too sophisticated to ask why out loud, but rest assured that question is uppermost in their minds when a change that affects them is proposed. So your first task in change is to answer those “why” questions. This requires rigorous honesty, hard thinking and hard work, plus some very tough choices.
This paper addresses how to create the felt need for change and a sense of urgency for the change throughout the organization.
>> This paper is one chapter from Dr. Carol A. Beatty’s e-book, The Easy, Hard & Tough Work of Managing Change. The complete e-book is now available on our website at no charge: Download
