Healthcare is not exempt from this trend, and may actually be experiencing a greater degree of transformation than most industries. Over the next few years, healthcare will feel and reflect the dramatic impact of the Balanced Budget Act, increased managed care penetration, unprecedented levels of uninsured, the Institute of Medicine's medical errors report, the potential for mandatory reporting, and of course, the Internet and all that e-Health portends. Not to mention as-yet undiscovered purveyors of change. At the risk of oversimplification, the secret to coping with change is to face reality. Don't flinch, and don't pretend everything is okay when it's not.
People hate change.
To overcome this aversion, change agents may need to deftly pry resistors from their comfort zones of stability and control. With no position, department or company immune from the phenomenon, it's not a question of if - but how and when change will occur. When faced with unexpected change, one of the characters deals with it successfully, and writes what he learned from his experience on the maze walls. We learn that someone is always moving the cheese, that it's wise to smell the cheese often to see if it's getting old, and that the quicker we let go of old cheese, the sooner we can start to enjoy new cheese. From my perspective as a fifteen-year employee, GE's approach toward change has had a profound impact at every level of the business.