Organisational Change Management Volume 2

Implanting Change Takes Time

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"...new ideas do not travel easily, and it is hard for them to take hold. Because we cannot know in advance which formats will prove effective in communicating a new message, we are well advised to use several alternative formats. Nor can we know for sure how such external formats can end up as internal mental representations. We need to monitor the words and actions of a leader's constituents to glean how ideas have been translated and internalized; and we must be prepared to do repeated surgery on our and others' mental representations until we get it right - or at least until the next change in context challenges current representations and calls for yet another take on the situation at hand......the most important point is obvious yet often underplayed: the amount of time that one is willing to spend in conveying the message, the story, the theory. We all cherish shortcuts to conveying new ideas, ......changing minds dramatically and decisively; and yet it is not possible, in most cases, to accompany transmission and acceptance in short order. And although tipping points sometimes occur quickly, in most cases it takes much time, much practice, and considerable backsliding before a genuine tipping point has been negotiated..."

Howard Gardner, 2006

In a large organisation such as AMP

"...you make real headway at roughly one level a year. This is why cultural change takes up to 10 years..."

Andrew Mohl as quoted by Narelle Hooper, 2007c