People don’t change. Unless they want to.
Humans are unique in their ability to willingly change. We can change our attitude, our appearance, and our skillset.
But only when we want to.
The hard part, then, isn’t the changing.
It’s the wanting.
So if you want to bring change in your organization you should make your people want it as well.
It’s tempting to try to do this just one person at a time. After all, if you fail, no one will notice.
It’s also tempting to try to change everyone at once. But of course, there really is no everyone. Too many different situations and narratives. When you try to change everyone, you’re mostly giving up.
The third alternative is where real impact happens: Finding groups of people who want to change together.
Organizing them, and then teaching and leading them.
It’s not only peer pressure. But that helps.
When a group is in sync, the change is reinforcing. When people can see how parts of your message resonate with their peers, they’re more likely to reconsider them in a positive light. And mostly, as in all groups, «people like us do things like this» is the primary driver.
And some people just hate change.
They don’t hate you.
If you get confused about that, it’s going to be difficult to make (needed, positive, important) change.
In a nutshell: To bring change in your organization find groups of people that want to change together.