At least a half dozen times over the last few months I’ve heard some variation on these phrases.
“Oh, they’d never go for that…That kind of change would lose their minds….I mean, we can ask, but I doubt they’d agree.”
All of these soundbites suggest that when it comes to change, the change is in charge. If it’s a big change, people will freak out a lot. If it’s a little change, people will freak out less. But ultimately there’s nothing you can do about it.
But if you truly believe there’s a better way to do things, you have to get people seeing that same vision. You have to take that picture in your head and paint it for them so they can feel what’s driving that change, not just what you’re needing or hoping or wanting to do differently. You have to point to that glorious point in the distance and then show how this change will help them get there.
It’s been fascinating to me how often I can correlation two observations.
- A lack of leadership from a person or within a team
- A fear of change or reluctance to ask people to change
Whether it’s something with your ownership, your team, your kids, your friends, change is not some nebulous thing that either happens or doesn’t. It’s a product. And products?
Yep, they’ve gotta be sold.
The same is true for change. Change doesn’t just happen. Change has to be sold.
