ABSTRACT
It does you and your organization little good if you and your team develop great solutions only to find that the employees will not use them and various managers will not enforce their use. Whether for define-measure-analyze-improvecontrol (DMAIC) projects, new product development, or other initiatives that necessitate the adoption and use of new processes, techniques, and ideas, managing the acceptance of the changes by employees and management is one of your main challenges. Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political theory and author of The Prince, once said,
It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.*
It is incumbent on you to heat up the lukewarm defenders and to win over the people who will use your improvements and to win over or neutralize any who may oppose your changes.
