An interesting question to debate is whether or not people are naturally resistant to change. The reality is that we all have some change that we naturally embrace and that which we naturally resist. So when implementing change in an organization, some people will naturally be more agreeable to change than others. I have found that most people are willing to change if they understand and buy in to the need for change, and understand exactly what they are supposed to do to change. The second point is key. Sometimes we as managers interpret actions on the part of employees as an unwillingness to change, but the real issue is that we haven't given them enough information so that they know what to do.

I work with organizations to implement change. It sometimes involves change on a broad scope such as changing the culture of the organization. In other cases, it may be something on a much smaller scale such as implementing a new process or system. Irregardless of the scope of the change to be implemented, I have found that there are three essential dimensions that must be addressed if change is going to be successful.

The first dimension is cognitive. The purpose of the cognitive dimension is to make those are affected by the change aware of three things—why there is a need to change, what needs to change, and how they are specifically involved in the change initiative. This is accomplished through multiple means which includes memos, meetings, videos and any other communication media which conveys the information to the organization. The cognitive activities create awareness and provide information.

Many change initiatives only address the cognitive dimension and usually fail. This dimension creates very little personal motivation to change. The other two dimensions add motivational factors which increase the likelihood of a successful change initiative.

The second dimension is behavior. The purpose of the behavioral dimension to use the most basic principle of psychology to reinforce change. The basic truth is that behavior that gets rewarded will be repeated while behavior that gets punished will stop. Most change initiatives usually involve some sort of behavior change. Often when trying to change culture for instance, no effort is put into examining the current reward and recognition systems to ensure that they are consistent with the changes desired.

The behavioral dimension sometimes becomes the ultimate test for senior management. The test comes when they have to deal with high performers who refuse to adopt change. Every successful leader such as Jack Welch at GE, Larry Bossidy at Allied Signal, and Al Stubblefield at Baptist Health Care faced the same situation and their response was unanimous—those who cannot embrace the new culture and change must leave irregardless of performance.

The third dimension is social. The purpose of the social dimension is to let those impacted by change to experience first hand what change looks like. It involves two things. One is that the new change must be supported and role modeled by senior leadership. People in the organization must see the senior leaders willing to change.

The other is that people are more likely to embrace change if they had had the opportunity to participate in making the change happen. Giving people a voice in how to change helps their buy in and motivation for change.

Change initiatives will have a much greater chance of success when all three dimensions—cognitive, behavior, and social are addressed.