Why Change Doesn't Happen

I am serving on the Steering Committee these days for the iParent Network for Ashford, Mansfield and Willington. This is a group that has emerged from a state-funded grant to reduce and prevent underage drinking by effecting environment (not individual) change.

Over the course of a year of study and assessment, we have developed a strategic plan focusing on changing family norms and equipping parents to be the prevention experts for their children and the community. From this has developed the iParent Network, which will include a great web 2.0, social networking website. The site will launch officially this coming August and will go into beta release in February or March.

The site is designed to create a "public square" where parents can interact, connect, learn, share, and be empowered as prevention experts. It will include a blog, discussion forums, a community wiki, twitter functionality, and a bunch of other pretty cool tools in addition to great content for parents of children of all ages.

I am actually pretty excited and optimistic about the project. I'll talk more about that in the coming months as the site gets closer to launch. I will be blogging about the intersection of faith and parenting and am also really excited about the other folks who be blogging and providing content.

But what I want to focus on here is on a simple question: why does change not happen?

As exciting and innovative as the iParent Network is, at every meeting there are a group of folks who seem insistent on stalling or derailing the process. To be honest, compared to town government and community groups, churches operate like fine-oiled machines!

If you thought creating change in a church is tough, try small town government or community groups. Almost impossible.

Why?

Having now observed "change" in the context of church, parachurch, academics, non-profits, corporate culture and community groups for over a decade, I have no conclusions but several observations. I have observed at least five common problems when it comes to change:

1. Lack of Urgency
   Lack of change can almost always be linked back to a lack of urgency or a lack of understanding the scope (and reality) of the problem. When people don't sense the depth of the problem, there is no urgency to change. Leaders often make the mistake of over-selling the solution while under-selling the problem. People need to understand the depths of the problem in order to be mobilized for real change.

2. Lack of Innovation
   People get really stuck when it comes to developing and looking at solutions. If it hasn't been tried, they won't. If it hasn't been done, it shouldn't. Therefore we just keep doing the same things with the same results.

3. Lack of Risk
   People are generally too risk-averse. Change is risky and sometimes does not work. Not changing is not risky and is guaranteed not to work (assuming the status quo is broken, which is why we are talking about change in the first place). You gotta choose!

4. Lack of Imagination
   People have very little imagination. Without imagination, change is impossible to embrace.

5. Lack of Self-Awareness
   Most people seriously over-estimate what they can accomplish short-term and under-estimate what can be accomplished long-term. Big problems take big solutions which take time.

I see all of these at work with the iParent Network.

A lot of parents don't really see underage drinking as a big problem. That leads to a lack of urgency.

A lot of folks are unwilling to try new things for fear of failure. We shoot down innovations to avoid risk because we lack imagination.

And finally, people often want solutions now for their kid.

How do we get teens today to stop drinking?

Probably the wrong question.

Better question: how do we create a sustainable prevention infrastructure that will helping foster healthy kids, healthy families, and healthy communities ten years from now.

If people had thought that way 10 years ago, the issues today would be very different.

I believe that underage drinking and substance abuse is a serious problem. I believe it can be changed. I think it will take innovative solutions. I think the measure of success is not next week or even next year, but 3-5-10 years down the line.

But change is hard...

What do you think?

What are your thoughts as to why people resist (and derail) change?

I'd be curious to hear from lots of contexts -- church, non-profit, academic, civil, corporate, etc.