Better, Worse, or Just Different?

When we’re facing change, it’s easy to assume it will be worse or better.  But what if it’s just different? 

A few years ago I was working with a group of implementation consultants (IC) who were converting customers from one electronic medical record solution (EMR) to a new one.  This group was struggling with client expectations of how the new EMR would function and it’s workflow.  These client expectations were driven by their experience with the original EMR, which in most cases was the only EMR they had worked with.  In the client’s eyes, the original EMR, with its own set of strengths and weaknesses, was the norm.  Anything else was either better, or worse.

Well, in fact the new EMR did have some weaknesses, but it also has many more strengths.  And in many instances, it was just different.  And this was where the ICs were facing struggles.  They had anticipated how to handle the weaknesses, and it was easy to trumpet the strengths.  But the “just different” stuff was often just addressed in passing.  In many cases, these differences were wrongly perceived by clients as weaknesses.

One of the first things we did was to work on the IC notions of what was better or worse, and had them start to identify the things which were just different.  We worked on removing the value statements and inferences from their vocabulary.  We worked on tools to assist then in emphasizing “just different”, such as compare and contrast scenarios for training, small tests the clients could use to compare workflow, and comparative diagrams of old and new functionality and workflows.  Once the ICs began to internalize the “just different” mentality, clients started to get it too. 

So remember, change isn’t always about better or worse, sometimes it’s just different.