Change management can be scary. Transforming a workplace full of other people with agendas you're unsure of and many you don't understand is a tough call and many resort to off-the-shelf management training, team-building and virtual portals in attempting to instil new working practices into the organisation.
The trouble, it seems, is that these solutions are often expensive and while they can be good indicators of best practice, they can't bring sustainable results because sustainable results take time. Yes, you can cook a chicken in an hour but it'll take longer than that to teach one how to cross the road at a green light.
Learning is a process best served with motivation. In fact when it comes to the workplace, motivation is the bedrock of sustainability - for a chicken, it's maize thrown in front of the flashing green man. We want more than maize, we want autonomy and things to look forward to that laying fowl wouldn't understand. You can drive motivation with perpetual motion but first you have to overcome the inertia that stops everything dead in its tracks, the conditioned response that says, "nothing's going to change around here."
Of course, you know that change happens all the time whether or not anyone wants to steer it. The clear and present point of continuous improvement is to be able to manage change ahead of the curve, to be responsive rather than reactionary and to step out in front of innovation so that you can catch it in the act.
As a starter for ten you're likely to want something to model your strategy on. This article from Robert Tanner is a brilliant recital of 8 fundamental issues you're going to face head-on, in a portrait of The Resistance that you and everyone else is up against when it comes to doing things differently around here. Feel the fear and do it anyway, for the only way is up and there's no turning back for any of us, any time. Never tell a leopard it can't change it's spots, for you never know - it might just surprise you!
