Try the Hands Test: feel why change is uncomfortable.

Transcript

…for me it just makes it real, and it's really simple to do. Just steeple your hands together like this; I'm doing it on screen right now. Steeple your hands together, then look down at your hands: which finger is on top? For me it's the first finger on my right hand. Just have a look which finger is on top for you.

Now, don't do this yet. Keep your hands as they are while I take mine apart and put them back together so that the finger on my other hand is on top. So now it's the finger on my other hand. Now you go for it: take your hands apart and put them back together so that your other finger is on top.

You don't have to answer this out loud, but how does it feel? For some of you it might have been easy. For others it might have felt horrible, weird, awkward, icky, or anywhere in between. And that's a simple change. My point is that change affects people differently, but for most people that process is quite awkward, and as leaders and managers we need to appreciate that.

What's even more interesting is if I asked you to do that again at the end of today, at 3.30. If I said steeple your hands together, how many of you would go for your original way rather than the way I asked you to change it? I would guess most of you would go back to the original way. That's because if change is not managed and sustained, people revert: they go back to the way it was before.