What then are the conditions under which one can sustain a change effort through the period of disillusionment and disruption? First, people who will be involved in this change effort must recognize that the change curve is likely to be present. They should not immediately judge the worth of a change effort, but wait instead until there has been ample time for the system to adjust to this change.
Second, people who are immediately involved in the change effort should be sufficiently committed to this effort to give it a good try. If the change effort has been initiated without adequate consultation with those who must enact the change, then the change curve is likely to be long-term and debilitating. There will be no Hawthorne Effect to provide an initial boost in morale and productivity. Nor will there be much motivation to continue with the change, once the disruption sets in. Typically, those people who were not consulted about the change will push for a return to the status quo (producing stagnation) or will push for another type of change (producing the vicious cycle of repetitive change).
Third, the person or organization must be sufficiently “healthy” to live through the disruption of change. Ironically, major change efforts often are most successful when they are not really needed. Under conditions of crisis, a person or organization often is unable to live with the change curve, hence will return to the status quo or initiate another change, which hopefully will be immediately successful. Since the latter hope is rarely realized and the return to a former crisis state is rarely gratifying, the stress on a person or organization is usually intensified by a change effort.
Fourth, a change curve can be successfully endured if the person or organization sets realistic deadlines and high but realistic goals for the change effort. In other words, adequate planning and evaluation must precede and accompany any successful change effort. The change curve must be anticipated in setting up deadlines and timelines for program planning, initiation and review. Formative, nonjudgmental evaluation of the change effort may be appropriate at a relatively early point in the change effort (for example, one to two months), while more judgmental, summative evaluation should not occur until the change curve can be expected to be on an upturn (usually four to six months after the start of a major change).
