Side Bets and Sweeties in Organisational Change

People don’t resist organizational change!People resist being changed!

The Communication Toolbox

My current programme is using new, bespoke software to drive organisational change. So I need people to change what they’re doing. A lot of people. As a first step I need them to adopt our new software. So I am always looking for ways to push the software roll out. In an earlier post I described one approach we use for encouraging adoption: Foot in the Door Technique. In this post I look at two other methods – which we call "Side bets" and "Sweeties".
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Foot in the Door Technique

My four year old daughter is an master social psychologist, or just a natural manipulator. Here’s an example:

Daughter: Can I go over to Lilia’s house to play?

Dad: Sure

… some time latter …

Daughter: Can I stay for a sleep over?

Dad: Um, I guess so.

My daughter doesn’t know it but she is using what social psychologists call the "foot-in-the-door" technique (Brehm & Kassin, 1993). The same technique is applicable when rolling out new software.
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