Change or Die (Fast Company)

Why do (and don't) people change? This is a great article on this question. Here are some quotes.

"Joy is a more powerful motivator than fear," he [Dr. Dean Ornish] says.

The big challenge in trying to change how people think is that their minds rely on frames, not facts.

"When one is addressing a diverse or heterogeneous audience," he [Howard Gardner] says, "the story must be simple, easy to identify with, emotionally resonant, and evocative of positive experiences."

Radical, sweeping, comprehensive changes are often easier for people than small, incremental ones.

Xerox now holds "alignment workshops" that ask middle managers -- the people who make processes work -- to outline the ways its systems could inhibit its agendas for change.

"Everyone needs a new project instead of always being in a bin," Merzenich says. "A fifth-day strategy doesn't sacrifice your core ability but keeps you rejuvenated. In a company, you have to worry about rejuvenation at every level. So ideally you deliberately construct new challenges. For every individual, you need complex new learning. Innovation comes about when people are enabled to use their full brains and intelligence instead of being put in boxes and controlled."

Fast Company, May 2005, p. 53+: Change or Die