Learning Technologies in the Workplace

07

Change, models and process

… there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, THE PRINCE

When he wrote those words at the beginning of the 16th century, Niccolò Machiavelli was drawing on a lifetime of experience in the turbulent world of Renaissance Italy’s warring princedoms. He knew how difficult change was, and that the root of this difficulty lay not in technology (barely even a consideration then) but in people: their beliefs, expectations and preconceptions. He also knew very well that the penalty for introducing change badly was too often a drawn-out, painful death.

When implementing ...