People Change Management

"Assumptions make an ass out of u and me. "

A quick google search on the above phrase brought me to coping.org which provides the following peice of advice:

We can really get messed up in our problem solving and critical thinking if we continue to proceed in our actions based on invalid assumptions. We must always validate and test our assumptions to be sure that our assumptions are based in reality. We must always avoid jumping to assumptions especially if they are negative or illogical. We need to never ignore the obvious and recognize that by taking things for granted one can fall into the biggest trap of invalidated assumptions.

Critical Thinking is very dependent on the open assessing, validating, and clarifying of assumptions. Assumptions lie at the root and foundation of what make critical thinking different from other forms of thinking and problem solving. So pay attention and heed the lessons to be learned in dealing with assumptions.

When it comes to People Change Management (ie getting people to adapt to changes in the business project world) I often find much of the IT and project management activities miss the mark. Much of project work is about accountability, scope and risk management, managing client expectations and all the rest.

The human services industries like medicine and welfare have some great resources and knowledge about helping people change (eg kick alcoholism) and I reckon these techniques and approaches are a great source of knowledge when you are faced with business change activities (eg redesign job roles, etc.)