Change is a word that often grips people with fear. We often value comfort over change. Even if the change we’re contemplating we’ll help us in whatever situation it may be, we still have a tendency to fall back on what is comfortable.
There is a great article here about how to overcome the resistance to change. The advice is broken down very simply and I want to add a bit to it:
- Define the outcome you want.
- Suggest a path to achieve it.
- Allow people to reject your path as long as they choose an alternate route to the same destination.
In the IT world, we are often at the crossroads of change whether it is through circumstance or made purposely but following Peter’s advice would be a big help, especially at a church or in ministry.
Some of you may be saying:
Hold it Jay! What about those situations where there isn’t another choice?
Good question. It’s at that point, we need to show how the change we’re making is going to benefit the person asking.
How Do You Do That?
It’s best you know what the issues are. If you ask somebody to describe a process that you know is cumbersome and time consuming, you should know beforehand what that process is (chances are because you have heard them complain about it). A specific example I can cite is making the change from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps.
Adding a new user and getting them up and running with email isn’t difficult process. But for a team that doesn’t have an IT staff, having one of the other staff members do this task is time consuming and issues often arise. It calls for creating an account on the Windows Server and then creating an account on the Exchange server.
Finally, Outlook needs to be installed and configured on a PC and then tied to the exchange server. More configurations need to be done if the person wants to work offsite.
For Google Apps, it’s as simple as clicking a link that says, “Create New Users”, and entering their first and last name as well as a user name. Provide the user with the link and now they can access their email and calendar from anywhere. Done.
So if you’re not in a position to allow somebody to reject your path for another, be sure the pay you lay out for them is short and clear.
Have you bumped up against times of change where people were resistant? What did you do?
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