Do people resist change?
I don’t believe people resist change at all. I do believe that systems resist change – this is a typical pattern of complex systems, as a result of their auto-poietic behavior.
People have concerns, purposes and circumstances. If we acknowledge them, they will cooperate. If we neglect them, they will not cooperate.
Well, people in organizations are rarely people at all … they’re people embedded in groups, departments, project teams and a multitude of other formal and informal affiliations. Systems they all are (a human itself is another complex system on another scale).
When asking what prevents change we can find a whole lotta reasons, some deeply rooted in one person’s belief systems, others may be more situated in the group’s experiences and learned patterns.
Yes, it’s more complicated than we all normally conceive, and keeping track of all factors isn’t “really simple” as Steve Simpson writes in Inspiring Cultures. This is indeed one of the most difficult questions we tackle and ponder when we look at organizations.
