Lion's Den: How Not to Manage Change

Grappling with the status quo

President Obama has dispatched the cream of his Democratic party to far-flung corners of the country to sell his healthcare reform plan. The result has been near-lynchings, as furious assemblies of ordinary citizens almost literally tried to shoot the messenger.

They are reacting to rabble-rousing rumors of a grand scheme to plunge the country into the arms of a costly socialist experiment, in which ‘Death Panels’ would do the citizenry into their graves.

Alas, Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt often bolster the Case for No Change. FUD merchants have claimed that the UK system of universal health-care is an evil blister on society, forcing our politicians to valorous defense.

President Obama is moon-walking blithely into the fray, confident of his calming charisma. But he is calming a storm that shouldn’t have arisen in the first place.

People are still terrified by the financial crisis, and change is always disconcerting. The town hall meetings should have happened before any policy was proposed. Then, people would feel they were crafting a policy, rather than reacting to a fait accompli. They would have had time to discuss the facts, air their apprehensions, warm to the idea of change.

Whatever the merits or otherwise of Obama’s proposals, the current firestorm of resistance is a salutary one to all change managers. It’s much easier to prevent a fire than to quench one.