A couple months ago I wrote about my belief that change practitioners and the business people we work with would benefit from doing change with people rather than to them and that changes would go better if our focus was on supporting people as they lead themselves through change. I also called out these three key fears I think people have about “doing” change this way:

• The change won’t achieve desired end results.
• The change will take too much time and money.
• A loss of control and an unfamiliar approach.

My last post was about the 1st of these fears. This post is about the 2nd one.

The change will take too much time and money

It seems like a common belief is that doing change “with” people rather than “to” them just slows things down and costs more money. As practitioners, we are often seduced by the idea that what appears to be faster is actually so and that it is also more efficient and more cost effective.

We are often seduced by the idea that what appears to be faster is actually so and that it is also more efficient and more cost effective.

I would like to challenge these beliefs by posing the following questions.

• In the current way we practice change management why do we have to spend so much time:
  • “Telling the story”?
  • “Selling the vision”?
  • “Getting buy in”?
  • Dealing with “resistance”?
• Why is there so much dissatisfaction with change initiative outcomes?

I suggest that if we redistribute some of the time we currently spend on these activities and instead spend it involving people from the beginning and getting clear on the goals of a change initiative we very well may save time and money. Plus, if we slow down to speed up (as I would call it) we may help future change initiatives go well and take better care of the people involved in these changes.

Closing thoughts

I want to hear from you. How do you think focusing more on doing change with people rather than to them would affect the amount of time and money it takes to carry out your change initiatives?

Please post your thoughts and comments below. Let’s help each other become the best change management practitioners and enthusiasts we can be!

Thank you for reading. Until next time, take care and keep up the good work!

Mike