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Change often fails and that rarely has anything to do with whether the concept is a good one or not. As Howard Aiken famously put it, “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throat.” As the creator of the Harvard Mark, one of the very first computers, he was speaking from experience. The truth is that any time you set out to make an impact theres going to be some who wont like it. Theyll seek to undermine what you are trying to achieve and they will do it in ways that are dishonest, underhanded and deceptive. Its a hard truth, but one we all need to accept: resistance is inevitable when you try to drive change. Once you internalize that, you can begin to move forward. When we work with organizations trying to adopt and scale new ideas, one of the first things we do is work to anticipate and build strategies to overcome resistance. We start by working to understand where resistance is most likely to come from and devise a plan to address the concerns opponents are likely to exploit. Understanding Sources Of Rational Resistance There are many good reasons to resist change. The status quo, for better or worse, is what people have become used to. They understand its benefits and how to work around its shortcomings. So the first barrier to change is the need to build trust in an alternative, more uncertain path. A second source of resistance is change fatigue. We live in an era that glorifies change, where disruption has taken on an almost cult-like status. So we need to consider not only the merits and demerits of a single initiative, but also the broader contextwhat has come before and what else is happening at the time. Many organizations juggle too many initiatives and the ones that fail increase change fatigue, making it harder for those that follow. A third source is competing incentives and commitments. Incentives, both explicit and implicit, are usually designed to reflect the status quo which is why many change leaders find themselves in the awkward position of asking people to act against their own interests, In other cases, the conflict is self-imposed, such as when a manager who wants to delegate more also sees herself as a hands-on manager. Finally, every change faces switching costs. Change always requires some investment in time, resources, training and other areas. Opponents of change often make the case that these costs exceed the potential benefits, which puts the burden of proof on those who support doing things differently. The key thing to overcome rational resistance is to anticipate it, which is why one of the first things that we do when we start working with an organization is to do a resistance inventory, laying out the categories of resistance and discussing what types of resistance can be expected, hope they will most likely manifest themselves and what strategies can mitigate them. Anticipating Irrational Resistance Many argue that resistance to change is merely an illusion. They claim that if youre facing pushback, its either because you havent effectively communicated the value proposition or havent put in the effort to understand the root causes behind the opposition. Surely, if your idea has value, people will embrace it. Now, thats just silly. Resistance doesnt need a rational basis and often doesnt have one. The truth is that humans form attachments to people, ideas, traditions and other things. When we feel that those attachments are being threatened, we will tend to act out in ways that dont reflect our best selves. Anybody who has ever been in a romantic relationship or part of a family knows that. Transformation isnt a popularity contest. Its not consensus driven. Its also not some heroic journey to some alternative future state about which everyone agrees (they never will). Change is always a strategic conflict between that desired future state and the status quo, which always has inertia on its side and sources of power keeping it in place. To overcome that resistance, you need to be clear-eyed and hard-nosed. Success or failure has surprisingly little to do with the quality or usefulness of your initial idea. Good ideas fail all the time. Thats why you need to be strategic. Slogans and gimmicks wont help you. Change isnt about persuasionits about power and collective dynamics. Building Strategies To Overcome Resistance The first principle of building strategies to overcome resistance is to address the causes of rational resistance youve uncovered in your resistance inventory. Another approach you can apply at the same time is to recruit a few skeptics to form an internal red team to let you know where youre going wrong. Theyre bound to identify blind spots and can often become genuine supporters over time. Irrational resistance, however, requires more specific strategies. The first is to start with a majority. You can always expand a majority out, but once youre in the minority, you will feel immediate pushback. You get to decide who you put in the room, so choose wisely. You have no obligation to invite the bomb throwers in. A second strategy is simply to not engage with your most active resistors. Decades of research has found that you usually need only 10% to 20% participation to hit an inflection point, so you dont need to convince everyone at once. Go to where the energy is. Find people already enthusiastic about your idea, gain traction toward that 10%-20% threshold. A final strategy is a dilemma action in which you identify a shared value and then design a constructive act rooted in that shared value. That reates a dilemma for your opponents because they need to either let the constructive act go forward, or to violate the shared value. Either way, your change moves forward. Dilemma actions have been used for at least a centuryfamous examples include Gandhis Salt March, Kings Birmingham Campaign and Alice Pauls Silent Sentinels. One of my favorites was a Lego protest in Siberia. They are just as effective in an organizational context, using an opponents resistance against them. Change Is A Strategic Conflict Many assume that you bring about change through persuasion. They believe that once people understand the idea they will embrace it. So they work to build awareness, desire and knowledge about the idea and equip people with the skills to implement it in the hopes that the transformation will take hold on its own and become self-sustaining. They are usually sorely disappointed. Decades of evidence show that shifts in knowledge and attitudes usually dont result in changes in practice. There is also a large body of research that suggests providing people with the right information is unlikely to meaningfully influence their behavior. People arent blank slatesthey bring prior beliefs and biases that shape how they respond to new ideas. The truth is that change isnt some kind of heros journey to some alternative future state. It is a strategic conflict between that desired state and the status quo, which always has inertia on its side and never yields its power gracefully. It has sources of power keeping it in place and those sources of power have an institutional basis. Thats why you need to begin to think about how you will overcome resistance from the start. You cant just wait until you encounter it and react, but must work to anticipate it and devise strategies in advance. Thats what makes the difference between successful changemakers and mere frustrated dreamers who once had an idea.
Category:
E-Commerce
Fifty years is a long time for any company to stay in business. About 20% fail in their first year. By year five, roughly half are gone. By the end of a decade, nearly 70% dont make it. Reaching a golden anniversary raises a question about what allows some businesses to last. The answers are often framed in terms of Herculean efforts, access to capital, and brilliant strategy. All those matter. But in my experience, the gift of longevity is the result of something less visible and harder to measure: the quality of the relationships built along the way. This factor was apparent to me when I opened my first flower shop on April 1, 1976, and it only grew stronger as that little business blossomed into 1-800-Flowers.com. When we stayed focused on our relationships, we moved forward. When we lost sight of them, we stumbled. Those relationships, of course, begin with customers who trust you with moments that matter in their lives. They extend to the florists, growers, makers, and partners who bring care and craftsmanship to the work every day. And they include the people inside the company, whose pride, judgment, and commitment ultimately shape what the business becomes. Relationships, up close Fifty years ago, I was working full-time as a social worker and part-time as a bartender. Both jobs showed me how our lives are shaped by relationships and how difficult it can be to express what we feel when the stakes are high. When the opportunity arose to buy the small flower shop across the street from the bar where I worked, I took it. In both jobs, I had seen people searching for ways to connect. If words sometimes fell shortand alcohol helped loosen themwhy couldnt flowers do their own kind of work? That tiny shop on Manhattans Upper East Side became a place where people brought moments they cared about: a birthday, a reconciliation, a loss, to name a few. In those early days, orders rarely came without context. A customer might explain that her daughter had just moved into her first apartment and felt lonely. Someone else would describe a gathering they hoped would feel warm rather than formal. People shared intimate details of their livesit was the 1970s!and many stopped by simply to say hello, swap gossip, or ask for a restaurant recommendation. Funeral work made that lesson unmistakable. Families came in for flowers, but what they really wanted was a way to express what words couldnt reach. Over time, we became known for deeply personal tributesarrangements shaped like garbage trucks for a sanitation worker, or gates left intentionally open because, as one family put it, you never lock the gates to heaven. Those moments stayed with me. They made it clear, early on, that carelessness had consequencesand that trust, once given, had to be earned again every single day. Scaling trust Built on strong relationships, that single flower shop grew into a small chain. Business was good, but I could see opportunities to grow further. The challenge thenas it remains todaywas how to expand without losing the trust that had been built one customer at a time. We learned early on that convenience plays a role in trust, and technology became a powerful way to deliver it. In 1984, while listening to the radio one morning as I shaved in the bathroom, I heard about the growing impact of toll-free phone numbers. The company that owned the 1-800-Flowers number hadnt figured out how to turn it into a national floral business. I thought we could with the right investment in telemarketingthis has always been a relationship business, after all. It worked so well that the phone number eventually became the name of the company. That was just the first of several technology waves weve navigated. We moved online when plenty of people doubted anyone would buy something so personal over the internet. We embraced mobile early. And today, were exploring how artificial intelligence can help people choose, personalize, and communicate more thoughtfully. Each shift mattered only to the extent that it made human connection easier. Technology earned its place when it helped people act on intentions they already had. It succeeded when it reduced friction in relationshipsand failed whenever it distracted from them. Stewardship is a choice The trust required to build and sustain relationships is neither automatic nor permanent. It has to be earned again and again. I saw it up close as 1-800-Flowers.com expanded beyond flowers into gourmet food and gift baskets, and we began evaluating businesses to bring into the family. I remember my first visit to Harry & David after we acquired the company in 2014. Years of ownership changes and aggressive cost-cutting had taken a toll. Trust between leadership and employees had been badly damaged, and customers had noticed. When I arrived, the leadership team braced for a familiar conversation. They had grown used to owners focused on extracting value by cutting costs, narrowing ambition, and shrinking the future. People were understandably guarded, uncertain about what came next. But the conversation took a different turn. Instead of talking about what could be stripped away, we talked about planting more fruit trees and protecting what made the brand distinctive for the long term. The focus was stewardship rather than short-term returns. Previous owners had talked about harvesting value. We were talking about cultivating it. One longtime employee told me afterward that he had never heard an owner speak that way. Staying connected in a crisis The shift toward digital commerce brought challenges, especially when it came to maintaining relationships with customers who now encountered us through screens rather than storefronts. Technology created reach and convenience, but it couldnt replace the power of being together. The pandemic brought that reality into sharp focus. In a moment of urgency, we closed all but one of our remaining Harry & David retail stores. As the crisis unfolded, I asked a simple question of my executive team: How do we stay close to our customers now? How do we check in, not as a business, but as people? A young woman in my office suggested writing a newsletter. That idea became the Celebrations Pulse. The first subject line captured the intent: Just checking in. In those early weeks, I shared thoughts on staying connected and maintaining perspective during a period of isolation and uncertainty. The response surprised me. Readers were struck that a brand wasnt trying to sell them anything. As weeks turned into months, the focus naturally widened from COVID to loneliness, from crisis to connection, from coping to the deeper reasons we celebrate in the first place. We eventually invited readers to share their own stories, many of which became the foundation for future letters. What began as a simple outreach grew into an ongoing weekly conversation. Circulation steadily expanded, from six million to 10 million readers. Today, its approaching 20 millionproof that even in a digital world, people still value being seen, heard, and remembered. Another turning point Technology continues to evolve, and customer expectations evolve with it. The tools change, the pace increases, and leadership requires a willingness to keep learnng. What matters most is staying attentive to the people you serve and the promises youve made to them. Its easy to rely on approaches that worked well in earlier chapters. Over time, though, the work asks for new skills and fresh perspective. Relationships dont stay strong by standing still; they grow when you meet people where they are. We were reminded of that in late 2024, when our food brands introduced a new order-management system ahead of the holiday season. The rollout didnt meet our expectations, and some customers were left waiting during moments that mattered to them. It was a difficult experience, and a revealing one. As the company approached its 50th anniversary, that moment prompted reflection. Longevity brings responsibilitynot only to honor what has worked, but to make thoughtful decisions that support the relationships the business depends on today and in the future. In the spring of 2025, I stepped aside as CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com and continued as chairman. Im now partnering with our new CEO, Adolfo Villagomez. His experience at Home Depot and strength in operations and team culture balance my own perspective. Hes the yin to my yang as we move into the next chapter. After fifty years, the lesson is a simple one. As title and tools change, what endures is the work of earning trustby listening closely, acting responsibly, and making decisions that keep relationships at the center. 50 years of gratitude Rather than protecting a legacy, the work ahead is about continuing to earn trust one decision, one interaction, and one relationship at a time. Gratitude keeps that responsibility front and center. Businesses dont last because they declare success. They last because enough people decide, again and again, that theyre worth believing in. For that beliefand for the people who continue to extend itI remain deeply grateful.
Category:
E-Commerce
At the Winter Olympics, skiers, bobsledders, speedskaters, and many other athletes all have to master one critical moment: when to start. That split second is paramount during competition because when everyone is strong and skilled, a moment of hesitation can separate gold from silver. A competitor who hesitates too much will be left behindbut moving too early will get them disqualified. Though the circumstances are less intense, this paradox of hesitation applies to daily life. Waiting for the right moment to cross the street, or pausing before deciding whether to answer a call from a number you dont recognize, are daily examples of hesitation. Importantly, some psychiatric conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder are characterized by impulsivity, or a lack of hesitation, while excessive hesitation is a crippling consequence of several anxiety disorders. As a neuroscientist, I have been working to uncover how the brain decides when to act and when to wait. Recent research from my team and me helps explain why this split-second pause happens, offering insight not only into elite athletic performance, but also how people make everyday decisions when the potential outcome isnt clear. We found that the key to hesitation is a response to uncertainty. This could be where a dropped hockey puck will land, when a race starts, or placing your order at a new restaurant. Hesitation and the brain To understand how the brain controls hesitation, my colleagues and I designed a simple decision-making task in mice. The task required the mouses brain to interpret signals that were predictably good, predictably bad ormost importantlyuncertain, meaning somewhere in between. Different auditory tones indicated whether a drop of sugar water would soon be delivered, not delivered, or had a 50/50 chance of delivery. How the mice behaved would not affect the outcome. Nevertheless, mice would still wait longer before licking to see whether a reward had been given in the uncertain scenario. Just like in people, unpredictable situations led to delays in response. This hesitation was not the result of vacillating between options in indecision, but an active and regulated brain process to pause before acting due to environmental uncertainty. When we examined neural activity associated with the onset of licking, we identified a specific group of neurons that became active only when outcomes were unclear. Those neurons effectively controlled whether the brain should commit to an action or pause to gather more information. The degree to which these neurons were active could predict whether mice would hesitate before making a decision. To confirm that these neurons played a role in controlling hesitation, we used a technique called optogenetics to briefly turn these brain cells on or off. When we activated the neurons, mice hesitated more. When we silenced them, that hesitation faded, and their responses were quicker by several hundred milliseconds, in line with their reactions to predictable situations. Researchers can use optogenetics to turn brain cells on or off. Daily life, disease, and downhill racing Our findings suggest that, rather than a weakness to overcome, hesitation appears to be a fundamental brain feature that helps people and animals navigate an uncertain world and avoid costly mistakes. Our study also provides insights into the balance of action and inaction in health and disease. The hesitation neurons are located in the basal ganglia, the same part of the brain affected in Parkinsons disease, OCD, and addiction. While researchers must still determine how much overlap or interaction there is between the cells involved in hesitation and those affected in psychiatric disorders, their overlap in circuitry points to possible targets for treatment. Our next step is to understand how cells controlling hesitation interact with drugs treating ADHD and OCD, conditions where patients can respond impulsively during volatile or uncertain situations. We also aim to identify which brain areas provide these cells with information about uncertaintythe environmental signal so critical to hesitation. While researchers have found that several parts of an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex encode uncertainty, its unclear how the brain actually makes use of this information, where the rubber meets the road. Hesitation is not a flawits a critical feature for navigating an unpredictable world. Whether youre a figure skater waiting for the perfect moment to launch your jump or just going about your day, the circuitry behind hesitation plays an important role in figuring out the timing to get the action right. Eric Yttri is an associate professor of biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
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