We've looked at six different reasons why change is difficult: 1) Uncertainty, 2) Aloneness, 3) Focus on loss versus gains, 4) We can handle only so much, 5) Lack of resources, and 6) Different levels of readiness. Today we are finishing with a seventh reason which is simply this: People tend to to revert back to old ways and habits. Most of us do what comes naturally to us; what we’ve always done is our easiest course of action, even though we may have discovered a better way.

In Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus shared about a person who gets delivered from evil but fails to fully embrace the new changes and replace the old with the new. In the end, that person was worse off than in the beginning.

A leader's strategy to help his or her people with this is to keep them accountable and find ways to keep the pressure on. After introducing a new strategy or implementing change, the leader needs to keep checking in and make sure it's being followed. Different types of rewards for acceptance and compliance are appropriate. For example, let's say you introduce a serving leadership model into your culture, training your employees on specific conduct you would like to see in the future. During subsequent weekly meetings, you could highlight persons who exhibited serving leadership behaviors and simply name both the person and the observed behavior that you appreciated. Remember, what gets praised gets repeated. And everyone will be encouraged to adapt to the new culture if you consistently keep naming it and calling it out.