Make Change Work: Staying Nimble, Relevant, and Engaged in a World of Constant Change

CHAPTER 9

GENERATE CREATIVE TENSION

People do things for their reasons, not yours.

—Unknown

A UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE

Personal motivators and preferences for taking action have been a constant theme basically forever. The list of authors, speakers, and business consultants who have used the quote that opens this chapter is so extensive that it was impossible to determine who was the first.

So with nods to the legendary Zig Ziglar and several of my colleagues who have used this statement over the years, here is the truth as it relates to change:

People see no reason to help you make change work unless you give them one that is important to them.

WHY WE CHANGE

The motivation and decision to change are based on emotional readiness. Intellectual understanding is not the same as emotional readiness.

This is a truth that makes change difficult—remember the discussion in Chapter 3—and it is a truth that makes change possible. People and organizations change for two basic reasons:

1. Crisis pushes them to change.

2. Opportunity pulls them to change.

Most people and organizations wait on crisis. You see that tendency in the heart attack survivor who becomes a zealot for good health after a near death experience. And, you see it in the companies who become zealots for good business practices after brushes with failure.

BURNING PLATFORMS AND POLITICIANS

Daryl Conner introduced the metaphor ...