I have argued that improvement only occurs if we change our current actions. From books to seminars to training programs, finding best practices that will give better results is straightforward. Getting the whole team to adopt these is the problem. To implement change it helps to understand what we’re up against.

We individually resist change because we act within our comfort zone. And we can’t change that.

Though we would like to think otherwise, we are predictable in how we work. We favor actions and methods we have already mastered. We are creature of habit, because we trust our habits to produce repeatable and acceptable results. In this comfort zone, we are relaxed, confident, focused. We know how. We have experience. We may not always succeed, or produce great results, but we rarely fail.

It’s not that we don’t like change. In fact we crave it. We want to improve, to get better. But to produce better results we must act differently. This means doing things outside of our comfort zone. Unconsciously or outright we ask ourselves: Will I succeed? Will I do it right? Will it work, for me? Isn’t it most likely I will fail at first?

People will resist change at a personal level if it forces them out of their comfort zone.  Neither management’s wishful thinking about motivation, buy-in and commitment nor threats will change that. And then, there is the reality of the workplace, which compounds the effect.

At work, we can’t jeopardize current results, even for future gains. At the end of the day, we still need to develop products on time, fill orders, and generate profits. An inspiring leader may motivate the team to step out of the comfort zone.  But the team must continue to produce.

We were introducing concurrent engineering methods, trying to involve manufacturing earlier in the design process.  “Management has to understand the impact on my project ” said the lead engineer.  “I am sure this will be good in the long run, but right now it’s adding hours and delaying milestones.  This extra work was not part of the plan.  It should be okay to overrun in this case.”  

But it is not OK!  It is wishful thinking.  Reality doesn’t care.  The market doesn’t care. 

What would the stock market do with the following press release.

ABC Inc. announced today its “Improved Work – Improved Results” program. Changes in work processes will triple sales and double profitability within a year. Management asks for shareholder and customer patience with the inevitable disruption to order processing and  product quality during the workforce retraining process.  ABC expects to regain any lost customers within six month after completion of the program…

On a personal level, people resist change outside of their comfort zone.  And the workplace increases that resistance by requiring results without interruption.  So where does that leave us?

You cannot cook a live frog by throwing it in a pot of boiling water. It will jump out, and only have sore feet. But put it in cold water, and heat it up gradually. It gets acclimated. It never jumps out, until it’s too late.

In changing how we work, we are the frog. We need to have our comfort zone expanded slowly. We need time and process  to assimilate  new methods.

It’s worth repeating: To be successful a change program must find a process to expand the comfort zone incrementaly in order to minimize  the resistance everyone faces to acting outside their comfort zone.

That lead engineer was caught between a rock and a hard place. The fault was with the change method being used.  We were asking for too big a change, too fast.  But, there are ways to implement change so it “sticks”.  An effective “Change Action Plan”  is realistic about resistance and plans for it from the start.  In fact, done right, change can be almost painless.   It involves breaking down the new practice into a succession of achievable small modifications each designed to shift the comfort zone with minimum resistance.  More on that process in a future post.