Historically, we have approached change through information sharing and leadership, assuming with a good leader who is able to explain and offer rational and compelling information, changees will be eager and willing to change – and will know how to process and make use of the information. But given the resistance we get, we know that’s not true. We continue along this path, however, and far too often get resistance and biased listening, impeding our change implementations.

This podcast on the historic problems with change management models explains why this is happening. It’s a systems issue: the reasons change is being sought might be compelling, but by ignoring the system that underlies the status quo, we actually create the resistance we get. Remembering homeostasis, a system will naturally resist when it will be disrupted – and when we attempt to push change from the outside without teaching the system how to reorganize according to its rules and values, we are, by definition, causing disruption.

It’s possible to help folks decide to change in a way that does not cause resistance – from the inside out – nor hear with biased ears, and enable us to facilitate the change without any push behaviors. But not with conventional change models.

I’ve developed a decision facilitation model (called Buying Facilitation® – a change facilitation model, not a sales model) that enables real, lasting change from the inside-out. Listen to this podcast, and call with questions.