Over the last few years, I’ve come to realize a few things about change.

A few bumper stickers I’ve seen:

“Change is good!”
“Fear change”
“The more things change, the more they stay the same”

Many times changes in the workplace get the most attention, as there’s typically an outside force that promises changes that those on the inside don’t really want to see.  A takeover or a merger are a prime example.  Merging Company ‘A’ with Company ‘B’ is never as seamless as people want it to be.  Integrating cultures into a single Company ‘C’ power house takes time.  The problem? Time is money.

Company executives would prefer to integrate operations overnight because the longer the integration draws out, the more it will cost the company.  However, you can’t merge policies, procedures, and schedules in one giant effort without the risk of chaos and anarchy churning in the lower ranks.

Another example is gas prices.  When gas went from $2 to $3 in the few days after hurricane Katrina, people wondered how big oil companies could get away with gouging the public in such a short order.

Politicians got on their soap boxes claiming that “big oil” won’t get away with this and windfall profits taxes would be the item of the day in Congress.

Over this last summer, we again saw gas prices rise from $2 to $3, but over a much longer period of time.  While people surely noticed the trend, the outrage just isn’t there.  Why?  Because gas prices rose over the course of months, not days.

“Change” is many things to many people based on many different circumstances.  However I’ve realized that it’s the rate of change that people notice more than change itself.

Draw out a gas price increase over a year and you’ll have a much different reaction that if you increase them the same amount over a week.

Integrating companies will go much smoother if you do it over months instead of weeks.

Layoffs will seem less dramatic if they happen over longer periods of time.

Change is inevitable, but it’s the rate of change that has the greatest effect.

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