When renovating a house, change is seen everyday. Walls are taken down and put up. Holes are cut, wires added, pipes removed, lights replaced, paint added, and so on. There are countless tasks to do and to manage.

Coaching a sports team, directing a theatre group, managing an organisational change process, is different. There are still countless tasks to do and to manage. And people to move into different roles, welcome new ones to the team, say goodbye to others, and everyone needs to be learning.

However, the pipes, walls, wires, etc. are innate and don’t have feelings about the change. People do.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the change, in the vision, in the tasks and steps to take. We forget people are humans not pipes.

Sounds simple. Sounds basic, almost silly. But it is one of the top reasons change processes are so painful and so often fail.

Remember they are humans. Everyone. Those who feel like the change is being done to them. And those leading the change.

Photo by You X Ventures