Comment:     by Pranal Nikumbh 8/21/2008 I read your article and I must say it is very crisp and precise. While reading it, I was hoping to encounter a nice 5 letter word, which means the world to every human being irrespective of change. TRUST. Organizations where the degree of trust is higher among individuals and where an employee is treated with respect, Change is accepted as a smooth flow. If the trust factor has hit rock bottom, then Change is treated as a selfish management trick. Just a thought Author's Response: 8/21/2008     Pranal, thank you for your comments and especially for raising the issue of trust. You are absolutely right. The presence or absence of trust can make a huge difference in how readily people accept change and adjust to it. In this article, my objective was simply to help readers appreciate that people respond differently to change – and that’s the case even when trust exists. In the book I’m writing on the topic, I’ve devoted an entire chapter to the importance of building trust before introducing change –- and how to gain that trust. See also my recent Stickyminds article on how to build trust.
	Comment:     by Elisabeth Hendrickson 8/20/2008 I see a lot of organizations in the middle of Agile transitions. From the trenches, it can often feel like a toss-the-org-chart-in-the-air change. The changes aren't actually random at all. But the organization has to shift from a hierarchical command-and-control structure to a collaborative set of self-organized teams. Such a shift is inherently disruptive. And, indeed, I see all the ranges of reactions that you describe, Naomi. Thanks for this article! I'll be pointing clients to it when they wonder why different people are reacting differently to an Agile transition. Author's Response: 8/20/2008     Hi there Elisabeth. Since this article was posted, I’ve received several messages privately from people who are right in the midst a major organizational or technological transition and who have seen all manner of reactions from the people affected. Your perspective as one who has worked with so many organizations further underscores the inevitably of a broad range of reactions to a change that is, as you described “inherently disruptive.” Your point about the changes not actually being random is important. The people who are leading the effort know it’s not random, because they can see the big picture. My hope – and I know it’s yours too -- is that they will come to appreciate that to the people in the trenches, it is likely to feel random, chaotic, confusing, and unnerving, and therefore such a range of reactions is not at all surprising.
	Comment:     by Sanat Sharma 8/19/2008 Most of the organizational changes happen without even providing proper information to all the employees. And if the changes are like this “the kind where you'd swear they had tossed the boxes in the organization chart up into the air and the way they landed determined the new organization”, it is really a muddled situation for employees. I have seen most of the time that employees got organizational changes information from numerous un-official channels which redirects them to behave abnormally. I agree that this is a tough task for the higher management to come up with all the theories in front of the employees based on which...Read On Author's Response: 8/19/2008     Hi Sanat. Thanks for your observations and comments. You are right that people often get information about organizational change through unofficial channels -- including the grapevine, which ensures that much of it is inaccurate. I agree that upper management can often do more to clear the fog. As to technological change, it would be delightful if everyone uncomplainingly accepted it, but technological change is as big an adjustment for a great many people as organizational change. It’s both natural and predictable for people to want to remain in their comfort zone. This is a reality that many people don’t appreciate, and is one of the reasons I wrote this article and am writing a book for IT organizations on the subject. Even people who are generally very receptive to change are much less receptive when the change is foisted on them rather than something they had some say about.

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