The Myths of Change

There are two myths of change. One is that change, if done right, should be easy. The other is that organizational change can occur when the individuals within it don't.

Change is hard. Anyone who has tried to change a bad habit can attest to this. If you are going to change anything significant you have to make it a priority and be prepared to struggle with it for some time.

Organizations emerge out of the interactions of individuals. Unless those individuals change their way of being, their relationships, their paradigms, their perspectives and their actions, the organization will not change. A change effort is always intensely personal. The change efforts doomed to fail are those that tell management that the change is directed towards the employee or tell the employee that the change is directed towards management.