Herding short-sighted, selfish sheep is all part of the job

Change is Good.

At least, that's how the old saying goes. The only thing about it is the fact that a lot of people are inherently resistant to change. It's a known fact, given a perfectly comfortable situation, most people would rather stay and maintain the status quo rather than shake it up with something new and different.

Part of my work is IT consultancy. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not yet that well versed in systems to single-handedly handle a large scale IT system in a company, but I did have the opportunity to join one of my superiors in a foray into the er... exciting world of change management.

We were there to oversee the implementation of a large multi-phase computer system that would help streamline operations of a large company, all the way from their purchasing department, through accounting, inventory and sales. Cool stuff.

Unfortunately, while upper management was eyeing the potential efficiency boost from this, middle management and employees were looking at it as something far simpler: "More Work".

So what we have here is no longer just a simple matter of installing a system and training people to use it. Instead we're being prophets, trying to educate people to the potential usefulness of the system. Sure it's not simple, and certainly it takes training to learn how to use properly, but look past that and see the benefits beyond.

Sometimes people can be short-sighted and selfish. It's all down to "What can it do for me?" rather than "What can it help me do for the company?" The better the company runs, the more it can afford to give to it's people. Unfortunately, people don't see that, and prefer to just go and give the minimum amount of work possible, to scrape up their pay.

But still, as consultants, we have to keep at it. In time we'll get them used to it, we'll put the system into practice and make them see that it'll make their work easier, better, faster, and less stressful. We just have to keep going, pile on the inertia, until we reach a new state of equilibrium... hopefully one that focuses on continual improvement.