Why people resist change ???

Just finished a hour long meeting to conclude one of the issues raised last week. Basically it's about productivity vs new technology.

The idea is to "Simplify the existing process" for a specific department. Lets call it Dept A. However the user's of Dept A resources are mainly from Dept B. Manager B observed that many of the tasks that went through Dept A delayed and often had impact on Dept B schedule. So he took the initiative to study and address the root cause. The entire problem started some time back when Web2.0, Collaboration, Team work etc are the hot words. So Dept A opted for WIKI based content management system (+Document Mgmt System) and replaced the Network drive.

Problem: People taking time to update WIKI.
Solution: Go back to X drive mode.

Manager B expected that Dept A would love to do that and he can overcome the problem. However it's exactly the opposite.

The problem is at times we tend to love the current situation (Status Quo) even if it's extremely complex, instead of change even if it's simple. Justifications given by Manager A are,

* Sunken cost/resources (spend a fair bit of time WIKIFying content)
* Now getting used to it. Do not change
* X drive is so lame

We managed to convince Manager A, by saying

* Files are simply uploaded and that doesn't really help much
* We can continue for knowledge sharing
* Do it in simple ways rather than making it complex.

Overall this is one of the example in work life where trivial things take a great deal of time. We've spend about 20 man hours trying to solve the issue which I believe can be avoidable.