Why change is so hard?

Have you ever wondered why no one likes change? It has a scientific explanation – energy conservation. The brain consumes most of the energy in our bodies. One of its most expensive functions is the assessment of reality through pattern recognition. If a pattern changes, our brains try to assess how we need to act to survive. To do this effectively, our brain ignores most of the reality and focuses on what changes. Our attention requires energy. If there is no change, energy is conserved. If there is a change, we need to spend our hard-earned energy to react.

We are hard-wired to this biological mechanism. We don’t like change. We make excuses. We procrastinate. On the other hand, a stagnant organism cannot survive in an ever-changing environment. In fact, we constantly evaluate whether it is worth changing or not. It is a cost-benefit analysis continuously running in our subconscious.?

You can think of companies as organisms as well. They also try to conserve energy. They assess their environment and decide whether and how to change. New system deployment is a major change to the whole organization. Imagine trying to change hundreds of standard operating procedures and asking for hundreds of employees spread across multiple locations to fully endorse the new process. This is why change management is one of the most difficult endeavors in new system deployment.

Training is a key component of this change management process. It can ease the pain and make it more bearable. Online training can provide small digestible instructions to a large user community. Learners can consume the new information on their terms. They can learn at their pace - whenever and wherever they want. The managers can track the learners’ progress. They can measure their skills and report on their advancement. The whole process can be objectively and quantitatively monitored. Training can even be gamified to make it more fun for learners.

Companies implement systems to get the value promised by the new solution. That value can only be realized if the users actually implement the new processes. The change in their behavior is the source of the promised value. The faster and smoother that change is, the sooner the value is captured. Online training can help.

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