Change philosophy

We all continuously adjust our behavior. At the same time many managers and change agents complain how difficult it is to change people's behavior.

There are several reasons why it appears to be so difficult:

Many managers and change agents use American change concepts, partly based on "tell and sell". This may work reasonably well in the States but much less so in other Western countries due to differences in national culture. An example is "the burning oil platform". It works, even if the platform is not on fire as long as people believe that it is on fire. If afterwards no platform appeared to be on fire, American management may still get away with it, but not so in most other countries.
Fear for what change may have in store may stop people from adjusting really.
If earlier change efforts have been aborted people may believe that management has no real intention to make change happen. They then adopt a wait-and-see attitude.
Social control may hinder those who would like to adjust from changing their attitudes and behavior.

Apparently there seems to be a contradiction. On the one hand we find continuous adjustement and on the other hand it appears often very difficult to change people´s behavior. The question therefore is, `Why are we continuously adjusting our behavior?`

We do so, whrn we find ourselves in different situations. It would not make sense to behave the same way in court vis-à-vis a judge as at home vis-à-vis our spouse or partner. Thus, we adjust our behavior when it makes sense to us. In other words, the best way to change people's behavior, at least in the Western world, is not by "tell and sell" but by changing people's environment to such a degree that it would be stupid not to adjust our behavior. Even in the States this holds true. It is called indirect change.
The only group for which this doesn't apply to the same degree is top management as it is very hard to change their own environment. In their case it can only be realized the hard way; i.e. by direct change. In other words they have to change all by themselves.

In order to make change happen we have developed a set of tools, facilitating both indirect change and direct change.