By electing President Obama in 2008, the people of the United States opted for change. In the May 2014 elections in India, the people of India opted for change by nominating N. Modi for Prime Minister after a long run by the Congress Party. The recent surges in polls and a realignment of leadership throughout the world are a clear indicator that people are not only wanting “change”, they are aggressively embracing change. Change is, however, being resisted by those who perceive change as a threat to their power position, be that as a leader, a manager, or as a skilled person.

As a practitioner of process excellence, using lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, TRIZ or any combination of a number of methodologies, one of the biggest challenges cited in implementing change is overcoming resistance to it.

As noted above, people seek outside change often, but they don't like being personally changed or having change imposed upon them.

Peter Drucker said it more eloquently, “People are not stressed because there’s too much change in organizations, but because of the way change is made.”

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