Re: Resistance to Change LO719

JOHN N. WARFIELD (jwarfiel@osf1.gmu.edu)
Mon, 10 Apr 1995 07:20:31 -0400 (EDT)

1. RESISTANCE TO CHANGE. What may appear as RTC (resis to chg) is the
situation whereby a proposer of change can't teach the resistor the full
panoply of consequences and the variety of social system interactive role
redesigns that will be required (Charles S. Peirce's Pragmatic Maxim: the
meaning of a thing lies in its consequences), sometimes because no one
knows those consequences in full. It's something like asking a
Shakespearian group of actors to leave London and go to North Dakota where
they will present Hamlet, modified to have taken place in that state, with
changesa in some characters (some being left out altogether), and with the
cast being required to create the script as they go. How many of us can
accept suggestions for modified behavior that puts us in new dramas with
unknown lines, in new roles, with others also in new roles? CONCLUSION:
Maybe the Change Agent should self-envisage as a rewriter of the drama,
making clear the whole context, and should also focus on the new matrix of
roles anticipated after the change.

Thanks for your eyes,

John N. Warfield
Jwarfiel@osf1.gmu.edu