Little is understood about the human relationship to change. Just as the nature of change is varied, so are human responses and reactions to it. Some people are confused, confounded, and compromised by the changes they experience and the npredictability of circumstances that confront them. Others find the prospect of uncertainty invigorating and embrace new situations that promise opportunities for excitement and exploration.

We see this most clearly when two people experiencing the same event describe it quite differently. What to one person is insignificant or even exciting may be a major crisis to another. It is this perspective of change that may have led the ancient Chinese to create the character for “crisis” as a combination of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.” So it is that people relate to change in unique, varied, and sometimes unpredictable ways.

When it comes to change in the workplace, the good news is that most people are open to it—a whopping 78%, according to research conducted by Discovery Learning of more than 5,000 mid-to-upper level managers. The bad news is that most managers and executives don’t know how to handle the process.

Through increased awareness of your own and others’ differing change styles and preferences, you can help your company do more than just handle change—you can create an organization that lives it.

Focus on people, not change
Much of the current conversation about change revolves around simplistic ideologies that label some people as “pro-change” and others as “change resistors.” Predictably, the pro-change forces are seen as the good guys and the resistors as the enemies of progress.

The problem with this ideology is that the people who frame these arguments have their own unique attitudes, beliefs, and preferences—their personal mind-sets about change. The fact that the pro-change person may lead his/her organization into a disaster or that the resistor may present objections for very sound reasons is often ignored. In other words: personal change preferences are often confused with change competency.

Research indicates that people have different habits and preferences in dealing with change. If you can recognize these differences in yourself and others, and address them specifically when communicating and implementing change, you are likely to face fewer misunderstandings, complaints, and saboteurs along the way.

To help organizations recognize these differences, we’ve taken the aggregate results from 150,000 change-style assessments (performed using the Change Style Indicator from Discovery Learning) and grouped people into three categories that describe how they deal with change: Conservers, Pragmatists, and Originators.

Conservers prefer to work within the existing structure to create incremental changes. When facing change, Conservers appear deliberate, disciplined, and organized; prefer change that maintains the current structure; may operate from conventional assumptions; enjoy predictability; may appear cautious and inflexible; and honor tradition and established practices.

Pragmatists deal in outcomes and seek practical, functional solutions to problems. When facing change, Pragmatists appear practical, agreeable, and flexible; operate as mediators and catalysts for understanding; are open to both sides of an argument; may take more of a middle-of-the-road approach; and appear more team-oriented.

Originators sometimes favor something that’s different just because it is that—different. When facing change, Originators may appear unorganized, undisciplined, unconventional, and spontaneous; prefer change that challenges current structure; will likely challenge accepted assumptions; enjoy risk and uncertainty; may be impractical and miss important details; may appear as visionary and systemic in their thinking; can treat accepted policies and procedures with little regard.

The key to applying this knowledge is to know your own change style preference and how that dictates the way you should interact with people with similar and different preferences.

If you are a Conserver, you may be perceived as too cautious or as a procrastinator. If your supervisor is an Originator, you might perceive her as being impulsive and unfocused. In turn, she might consider you an obstacle to progress. If one of your co-workers is a Pragmatist, you might view him as indecisive. He might understand your point of view, but think that you’re too risk-averse.

Change agents and resisters
In addition to the three main change styles, there are a couple of other players you should be aware of.

Change agents are often consultants who come in from the outside and, without really understanding your company’s culture or needs, try to impose the changes they think you need. Change agents can also be over-enthusiastic members of your own organization who may run the risk of alienating the very people you need to make the change work.

Resisters are often people seen as those who don’t care about the company’s success. Often, though, the biggest objections to change come from the people most devoted to the company. Hearing and acting on their concerns may help you head off problems you hadn’t anticipated. Being able to tell the difference between hardcore resisters who will fight any change no matter what and concerned employees is crucial. If you treat every skeptic as a hardcore resister, you risk breeding alliances between these two groups that could further stall needed changes.

To effectively lead, you must recognize that the phenomenon of “change” does not need managing as much as the people involved with it. To work successfully with people whose preferences fall all across the change style continuum, you must first recognize that your perception of others is colored by your own change preference.

This self-awareness and awareness of others can drive the understanding and acceptance found in successful corporate cultures. Fostering a corporate culture that values differences is the most important and pressing challenge facing executive leaders today—it’s crucial to creating dynamic organizations that “live” change rather than continually react to change to stay competitive.

Chris Musselwhite, Ed.D. is president and CEO of Discovery Learning Inc. and author of Dangerous Opportunity: Making Change Work (Xlibris, 2004). He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it