Interesting quotes in my Supervison textbook, chapter 15, about Change. - Change is crucial for business and human growth. This applies to work but it also applies to everyday life. ** Tom Peters aptly noted, the old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” no longer applies. In its place, he suggested, “If it ain’t broke, you just haven’t looked hard enough. Fix it anyway.” ** Why are people resistant to change? ** 1. Habit: As human beings, we’re creatures of habit. Life is complex enough; we don’t need to consider the full range of options for the hundreds of decisions we have to make every day. To cope with this complexity, we all rely on habits or programmed responses. When we are confronted with change, this tendency to respond in our accustomed ways becomes a source of resistance. So, when your department is moved to a new office building across town, it means your employees are likely to have to change many habits: waking up ten minutes earlier, taking a new set of streets to work, finding a new parking place, adjusting to the new office layout, developing a new lunchtime routine, and so on. ** 2. Fear of the Unknown: Changes substitute ambiguity and uncertainty for the known, and human beings don’t like ambiguity. If the introduction of a desktop publishing system by a small book publisher means that editorial people will have to learn to do their entire jobs on computers, some of these people may fear that they will be unable to learn the intricacies of the system. They may, therefore, develop a negative attitude toward working with desktop publishing or behave dysfunctionally—complaining, purposely working slowly, undermining department morale—if required to use the system. ** 3. Selective Perception: Individuals shape the world through their perceptions. Once they have created this world, it resists change. So, individuals are guilty of selectively processing what they see and hear to keep their perceptions intact. They often hear what they want to hear. They ignore information that challenges the world they’ve created. The book editors faced with the introduction of desktop publishing may ignore the arguments that their supervisors make in explaining why the new equipment has been purchased or the potential benefits that the change will provide them.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 05:44:03 +0000