Some of us don’t like cold weather – myself included. I’ll take a hot, sunny day any day over snow! We can’t change the weather or the many other forces outside our control, but we can adjust our attitudes toward change. Research shows the most successful organizations (reporting high levels of productivity, profitability, and engagement) are accepting of change. This means they are both accepting of new ideas and new people. Conversely, organizations struggling to engage their teams report higher levels of resistance to change.
It sounds simple enough — to shift our attitudes toward change — but if it were easy, everyone would be doing it, and every membership organization would be reporting high levels of productivity, profitability, and engagement. The fact is, change is difficult. Our brains resist change (that’s a scientific fact), and most of our organizations were founded many decades ago. We’ve held on to traditions and irrelevant models simply because they are known and familiar. But in a world fueled by innovation and disruption, we have to warm up to the idea of change to stay relevant, competitive, and community-centric.
In this episode of the Membership IQ podcast, I use the weather as a metaphor for change and remind association leaders how their responses to change and a culture of resistance to change can create significant problems within the organization. I could sit on the sidelines and whine about snow or even stomp my feet and complain about it. But would that do any good? No. There is absolutely no benefit to resisting change, but there are benefits to be realized when we accept it.