Elastic People

Have you ever been in the situation when you introduce a new way of doing things to someone who seems to embrace the change, only to discover that the next week or month they are back doing things the previous way?    I have previously posted about how change management is difficult but it is important to understand that people avoid change in many different ways.  The most common is a general reluctance to accept the new way forward because they do not agree with it - what I call inelastic behavior.  This is understandable because people get comfortable the way things are.  When you present a new situation to them they resist it initially until they gradually get used to the idea and over time the new situation replaces the established baseline.

But some people actually appear to accept and embrace the new situation straight away giving you the impression that the transition is going well.  But just when you think the transition is complete, like elastic, they suddenly ping back to their original position.  This makes implementing change harder because it is less clear if progress is being made, and can lead to much frustration as perceived progress made simply evaporates and you are back to the beginning again.

That said, the solution is essentially the same.  Consistency.  With elastic people it is even more important to keep moving forward with plans in the same way even if you have to reset the educational process for that individual which can clearly be frustrating.  Essentially you have to keep going until the elastic gets so stretched it snaps.