The Ten Commandments of Change

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CHANGE

1. Change is more acceptable when it is understood than when it is not.
2. Change is more acceptable when it does not threaten security than when it does.
3. Change is more acceptable when those affected have helped to create it, than when it has been externally imposed.
4. Change is more acceptable when it results from an application of previously established impersonal principles than it is when it is dictated by personal order.
5. Change is more acceptable when it follows a series of successful changes than it is when it follows a series of failures.
6. Change is more acceptable when it is inaugurated after prior change has been assimilated, than when it is inaugurated during the confusion of other major change.
7. Change is more acceptable if it has been planned, than if it is experimental.
8. Change is more acceptable to people new on the job, than to people who have been on the job longer.
9. Change is more acceptable to people who share in the benefits of change than to those who do not.
10. Change is more acceptable if the organization has been trained to plan for improvement, than if the organization is accustomed to static procedures.

*(Besse, 1957, pp. 62-63) as in Steiner, G.A., Top Management Planning