a nudge

A nudge is an intervention that maintains freedom of choice but steers people in a particular direction. A tax isn’t a nudge. A subsidy isn’t a nudge. A mandate isn’t a nudge. And a ban isn’t a nudge. A warning is a nudge: “If you swim at this beach, the current is high, and it might be dangerous.” You’re being nudged not to swim, but you can. When you’re given information about the number of fat calories in a cheeseburger, that is a nudge. If a utility company sends something two days before a bill is due, saying that “You should pay now, or you are going to incur a late fee,” that is a nudge. You can say no, but it’s probably not in your best interest to do so. Nudges help people deal with a fact about the human brain—which is that we have limited attention. The number of things that we can devote attention to in a day or an hour or a year is lower than the number of things we should devote attention to. A nudge can get us to pay attention.

Cass Sunstein

"Much anew about ‘nudging’," by Roberta Fusaro and Julia Sperling-Magro. mckinsey.com. August 6, 2021. 

change is a process

Change is a process matching the speed that employees navigate the change process to the speed of the business change... 

Effective change progresses along the two axes (phases of business change and phases of employee change) at the same time. We must manage the implementation of the technical solution and the people side of the change concurrently. If we fail to manage these two components together, then we can experience the failure points shown above.

Jeffrey M. Hiatt & Timothy J. Creasey

Change Management: The People Side of Change, by Jeffrey M. Hiatt & Timothy J. Creasey Prosci Inc. 2012. P.37-39

a solution that is technically "right"

Just having a solution that is technically "right" does not guarantee that employees will make the necessary changes to their behaviors and work processes. Employee commitment, buy-in, and adoption do not stem from the rightness of the solution, but rather from the employees moving through their own change process. It takes more than the right solution to move employees out of the current state that they know and into the future state they do not know (and sometimes fear).

Jeffrey M. Hiatt & Timothy J. Creasey

Change Management: The People Side of Change, by Jeffrey M. Hiatt & Timothy J. Creasey Prosci Inc. 2012. P.31

from "how high?" to "why?"

The evolution from the traditional values of control, predictability and consistency - values that made change relatively simple to implement - to the new values focused on accountability, ownership and empowerment has made the implementation of top-down business change more difficult. 

...These... employees now question and resist new change initiatives. The response of the employee has shifted from "yes, sir" to "why are we doing that?" If your employees have embraced some or all of these new values, change management is not an option for successful change, it is a requirement. 

Jeffrey M. Hiatt & Timothy J. Creasey

Change Management: The People Side of Change, by Jeffrey M. Hiatt & Timothy J. Creasey Prosci Inc. 2012. P.26,27

lacking sponsorship

While the criteria and roles for a sponsor may seem straightforward, many projects today struggle because they lack sponsorship for their change. In some cases executive sponsors authorize the change (sign the check) and kick off the project, and then disappear. They abdicate the role of sponsorship to a mid-level manager or consultant. 

Jeffrey M. Hiatt & Timothy J. Creasey

Change Management: The People Side of Change, by Jeffrey M. Hiatt & Timothy J. Creasey Prosci Inc. 2012. P.24