The Tyranny of the Tangible →

Alison Reynolds and David Lewis, writing for the Harvard Business Review:

The fear of creating this very situation, executives explained to us, is why so many of them focus on the tangible instead of the human. Having an open dialogue around important strategic issues simply feels too risky. “We feel like we would lose control,” they told us. “Resistance to our plans would surface.” In fact, psychology and experience tells us, the reverse is true: A lack of genuine, reciprocal interaction and the feeling of imposed change increases employees’ anxiety and resistance.

This article absolutely nails it. I might sound like a broken old record, but this is one of the maxims I live by in my work: “People own what they help create.” Instead of paying lip-service, what if we took a truly participative approach to change?