Mark sums up a great deal of the material he’s gathered over the years.
We really are very poor at changing human behaviour…Much poorer than anyone of us would like to admit (to ourselves or anyone else).
I agree though I might phrase it differently.
I think change is easy, we’re changing each other’s behaviour all the time, often quite unconsciously.
(If you doubt this, find a willing partner and sit facing each other and carry out this assignment: for the next 60 seconds, do not influence each other in any way. What are you going to do? Get up and walk away from them? And you think you’re walking out will have no impact? Remain poker-faced? And that won’t have an impact?)
No it’s control that’s problematic. Even if we try to dress it up as “change management.”