The management literature concluded in the 1980’ies that there is nothing static in an organisation – an organisation will always be in flux. Old news 🥱 …because this fact was already stated in the ancient Greek philosophy by Heraculitus (500 BC) - ‘change is the only constant’.
So why is it that resistance to change is still a challenge when change is a prerequisite for an organisation’s existence? You would expect people to be change oriented either way.
We argue that resistance to change is high, if firstly, the change initiative does not generate real improvements to current issues in the organisation. Secondly, the change initiative only serves to benefit either customers or stakeholders but forget to encompass the culture’s body of knowledge.
Hence, more resistance to change, more reason to believe that the change initiative does not serves the organisation well.
We believe the key to a successful organisational change comes through genuine involvement and collaboration across silos about how, what and when to execute and implement relevant changes.
Unfortunately, many organisations overlook the fact that changes not only need to be implemented in the culture but by the culture.