The Personality of Change
Blue Planet by Dez Pain
The Anatomy or Structure of Change. How does change happen? How does it last? Whether for you as an individual, or for a team of individuals in a company.
I struggled with the title because the drivers of a successful change seem to come from many different areas. The structural shift. The psychological shift. The habits and routine shifts. etc.
First, a definition. I see successful change as being the thing that happens to make you move from one state to another state; that state then remains and becomes the norm.
I redrafted from my initial attempt at this post where I had considered that successful change was pre-planned to achieve a desired/ better state. I believe that as much can be learnt from change happening for the worst. So that the new state of affairs is less desirable than pre-change.
As an initial brainstorm of the various aspects or elements of the personality of change:
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The theory: mentally I start considering the process of change in a systematic, paper-based way. It can be planned and structured and implemented.
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The quick win: there are immediate rewards in the case of change to a desired state. Immediate benefits are seen by those involved to motivate into starting routine and repetition.
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The buy-in: reality is that the mental acceptance and then physical behaviours of those impacted have to align with the new future state for it to be considered successful.
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The language: language shifts. The new state is articulated as a ‘done deal’. The new language associated is used (stiltedly at first) by those involved, but more confidently as time goes on. This seems to have a viral effect.
To be continued.
Just Seven Things 