🔒Ask ACE: How to overcome aversion to change

Q: Why is it so hard for both my staff and my management to accept change?

ACE Advises: Most of us are change-averse. Even when we can imagine or understand the benefits of some change in our lives, our organizations or our relationships, something holds us back. Here are some ideas to overcome that resistance.

• Every change involves some pain. Find strategies that control the amount of pain, or how long that pain will persist.
• Paint a clear picture of your better world after the change is accomplished.
• Make both the need for change and the possibility of change, feel very real. Present a compelling vision.
• Take deliberate action to create the needed changes. The reality will often be much less difficult than the fear suggests.
• Empowerment may be the key. Empower your staff and management as deliberate actors — not as victims of circumstance.

In summary, transfer resistance to change into a new energy, creating change that solves real social or business problems.

Arthur Fink can be reached at arthur@arthurfink.com.