Change creates fear. Titus said “We fear things in proportion of our ignorance of them“. Hence one of the easiest ways to help people and organization change would be to educate them. While it does work now and again, however, it has been constantly proven that this is a very ineffective strategy. Education does play a role, but it is personal experience at the emotional level that is important to effectively create change.
Fear is deeply emotional. The rational mind can tame some of it, but it is a long and difficult process. Educating people as a way to support change had long been quite a dismal strategy to elicit change (anti-alcohol and tobacco campaigns being good examples), although it is still supported by many rational minds.
Creating deep emotional experience is much more effective. Change management programs should probably aim at creating these emotional experiences as a way to support change rather than over-rationalizing what factors are at play to prevent change.
Creating emotional experiences can be tough to design in corporate environments, but are not impossible. They include leveraging on the connections between people and pushing people outside their comfort zone. They including pushing people to discomfort. Change management programs would need to include these elements but often do not for fear of rejection by the sponsors.
If you want real change, tackle it at an emotional level and make sure to create enough discomfort to elicit real transformation.
