Where did the Status Quo come from?

Posted on April 18, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

“Everything we now currently hold on to was the product of past change.”

It is easy to forget where the current “status quo” came from. No matter how comfortable, and even necessary, an existing arrangement of things feel today - it was once new, untried, and distinctly uncomfortable.

** Change is how we got where we are, and change is how we will continue to move forward.

Even though change is a constant and an inevitable part of every day life, the challenge surrounding leading change is that it can’t be approached as some pragmatic “engineering” problem.  Change involves people – and thus a change process will call up all types of emotions, uncertainties, and inconsistencies in those being affected.  Therefore, choosing to simply “managing change” is insufficient.  Successful change requires wise and thoughtful leaders who carefully help their people first process, and then actively enter into, the journey of any prescribed change.

One way they do this is by helping followers answer 6 basic questions

:

1) What is specifically changing for me?
2) Why is it changing?
3) How will I be impacted?
4) What’s in it for me?
5) What do you need me to do?
6) How will I get the knowledge, skills, and needed information that will be required of me?

When a leader takes the time to clarify for their people the specific answers to these 6 questions, the process of change (though not easy) will flow much easier for everyone involved.

Challenge

: Every leader (worth his/her salt) is overseeing some type of change process.  How well have you answered these 6 questions for your people?

Oh… one final thought: “Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.” ~ Robert C. Gallagher