One of the most commonly held misconceptions is that people automatically resist change. Its more trendy formulation is that people resist being changed. I'd like to share with you another view, which is attributed to Professor Emeritus Jerry B. Harvey, of George Washington University.
Harvey observes that people don't resist change that is pleasant. If you won the lottery tomorrow it would surely change your life radically. If resistance to change were universal, you'd refuse to cash the ticket or give all your winnings to charity. In practice, hardly anyone does either.
What people do resist is pain. When change is painful, people resist it. Painful change takes many forms. It can arise from loss of income, loss of status, loss of skill, loss of friendship, or the need to start over.
If your employees are resisting change, it is because in some way they perceive the change as not in their best interests. Telling them it will be good for them in the long run often won't work. J. M. Keynes was right, "In the long run, we are all dead."
Paraphrasing Mary Poppins, you need a 'spoonful of sugar' to help the 'medicine' of change go down. People embrace change when they can see immediate personal benefits arising from that change. Seeing no major immediate personal losses doesn't hurt either.
