When people continue to work as they have in the past, attempts at organizational change fail. This is true no matter how sound the plan for change, no matter how important the results intended, and no matter how compelling the leadership. Each individual in the organization makes a personal choice about the nature of his or her involvement in the change process. This applies equally to corporate officers, to people working at the bottom of the hierarchy, and to everyone in between. We work to secure our familiar relationships and organizations.
Organizations are big systems made up of little systems.
All the pieces are connected. Making a major change in one part of an organization affects every other part of the organization. The people in an organization bind all the little systems together. When leaders attempt to reform one system without changing all of them, people get stretched. The change grinds to a crawl.