Change has Changed

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The new normal of perpetual change requires a different approach.

As long as there have been organizations, we’ve had to cope with organizational change. I hear people talk about change in organizations as if it’s something new. That’s total crap.

But something is different now. Change has changed.

Today, change is more frequent, it’s more convoluted, and more iterative. There is seldom time or resources to fully implement one change before the next one kicks off. So much for our neat and tidy old 7-step change management models. What are you supposed to do when you’re on steps 1, 4, and 7 all at the same time. Perpetual change requires a new way of thinking about and managing change.

What Hasn’t Changed

What hasn’t changed — the basic human reaction to change. Our brains haven’t evolved in the 10 years since things started getting kooky on the organizational change front. Change still throws us for a loop.

We’re still wired to take notice things that are novel in our environment. Finding something unexpected kicks our brains into overdrive. Adapting to change requires that we abandon our habits and replace them with deliberate actions. Switching from habit to deliberateness is exhausting. Change is costly for our brains.