As I look closely at the page as shown above, I have come to realise that there are actually five key aspects for me to elaborate, each represented by an imaginal picture.
That's to say, based on what I had already committed from the onset of sharing my personal musings, I have to outline five personal perspectives, over five subsequent blog posts, starting with this one.
The first aspect is, as usual, the pertinent question posed by Dilip Mukerjea, as shown below:
The first thing that strikes me when I read the question from Dilip is recalling the salient points from the wonderful book, 'Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort & the Tyranny of Custom', by noted leadership expert James O'Toole.
In a nut shell, & drawing my intellectual cues from the author, leaders who are tough, manipulative, dictatorial, or paternalistic, have only themselves to be blamed for driving or pushing their organisations to mediocrity &/or early death, when instituting organisation-wide change initiatives under their charge.
Interestingly, when employees down the line, whose status quo - meaning: psychological comfort - is being challenged by leaders who are apparently still stuck in an outmoded Machiavellian approach, resistance from the ground build ups & gradually skyrockets.
They become powerful prisoners in the comfort zone, & often delay the acquisition of requisite change until it's too late.
On the other hand, about 90% of organisational change initiatives fail, & a majority do so because of "cultural barriers".
The author aptly outlines more than thirty realistic examples of "cultural barriers" as evidence of the ideology of comfort & the tyranny of wisdom.
To employees, organisational changes always bring about a perceived personal loss of some sort. More importantly, most employees do not fear change, rather they fear what is unfamiliar & unsettling. To them, "what's in it for me?" is real & legitimate.
In the end analysis, perceived irrelevancy &/or perceived fear of personal loss are the major causes of resistance to change.
I reckon change leaders just have to deal patiently & intelligently with these seemingly powerful opponents to change within their organisations.
I recommend reading the book for its brilliant illumination on the subject of leading change.
[to be continued in the Next Post.]
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