Stuart Umpleby's comment carries such a ring of truth: "I liked John
Warfield's description of resistance to change. It describes quite well
my feelings when I resist change -- I do not know how to act in the new
situation."
Even in settings I've seen where people are very eager for change and have
been actively involved in the change design, I have seen the phenomenon
Stuart describes come up. When implementation actually occurs, people do
not know how to act. The people most desirous of "empowerment" (and
capable of self-management) are suddenly asking to be told what to do!
Seems like a fairly rational response to the unknown, but it's not too
productive for the change initiative. Possibly some of you have developed
some theories about this phenomenon that you could share.
Perhaps some of our visioning work needs to be on imagining the new
context on an individual and group level as well as on the strategic
organizational level that we already do. I also think it may help with
this problem to work with people in their own job context to facilitate
the change, rather than taking them out of their workplace in a meeting or
seminar or retreat.
Diane Weston DMWeston@AOL.COM