At first glance this may seem like nonsense. Why would anyone spend time thinking about why the thing they want to change isn’t changing? Why wouldn’t they just get busy and change it? It’s a fair question that deserves a considerate response.
For any change target (the thing you want to change, e.g. organization structure, operational policy, business process, production equipment, tools, work methodology) there is a network of forces acting on it to keep it just as it is. Typically these forces are current organizational structure, politics, social norms, precedent, and long-held but unchallenged beliefs like the following.
- “It’s always been this way”
- “It works just fine and we’re used to it the way it is”
- “Mike’s run that unit for years and things are just the way Mike likes them”
- “That’s a good idea, but we'll never get funding for that”
- “That could never work here”
- And so on
Together these forces conspire to keep things the same.
If you want to move a change target in a different direction and to a different level, you need to understand the nature and strength of the forces acting on it that hold it in its current state of equilibrium. This is your first diagnostic task. Once you have a good handle on the network of forces acting on the change you want to make, you will start to see where and how to intervene to move it in the desired direction.