Why is change so hard? I asked myself this question during my first real business change program. I was assigned to build a new business process and as a rational person I looked at the current process together with a change team from the business. We eliminated all the ‘waste’ in the process and build a perfect new one. When we started to implement I thought this was easy. Forget the new process and just very simple tell everybody involved to follow the new process which we documented in a very nice and simple manner. One month later, less than 5% of the employees followed the new process…… How hard can it be to just follow the new process?

I started to search the internet about change management and bought the book SWITCH from the Heath brothers. This book was an eye-opener and a real inspiration for me to continue to learn about the rational and emotional part of people’s brain. Eight years later I still use it in my change programs.Continue Reading…