Leading Change: TRAINING

The Forces for Change

Sir Isaac Newton said it best: Unless acted upon by an outside force, an object at rest tends to remain at rest and an object in motion tends to continue in motion in a straight line. This principle, Newton’s first law of motion, suggests that any physical object tends to resist change unless pressure is exerted upon that object by a force. If the force is great enough to disrupt the momentum (rest or motion), the object is nudged—sometimes catapulted—from its position to something quite different.

To understand change, then, we must first understand its source. This involves exploring the forces that are putting pressure on a relatively stable system (our organization) to force it into becoming something other than what ...