Is Resistance to Change a problem for IT projects?

I read about a lot of project failures that are classified as failures due to resistance to change. I was recently speaking to a consultant who was talking about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) projects and the challenges that they face.

All change encounters resistance when there is no benefit shown. If there is no benefit to making a change, then why should I change? After all, I listen to WII-FM (What's In It For Me). All change is difficult. We have to want a change in order to go through the effort to make a change. Just look at people who have lost weight, quit smoking, etc. They had to really want to change. To people who run IT projects, resistance to change is common. However, most of them are deeply involved in the change, see the value or potential value and are comfortable with technology. They can't understand why people don't embrace this new solution.

Often people involved with a project don't see it as a change, or at least don't see the negative side of it. Any change requires a refocus, a relearning, a move from subconscious activity to conscious activity. This is very time consuming. Your productivity goes down. However, business volumes don't (except for a recession, when staff gets cut to compensate). This means you take more time to do your normal job, and therefore will encounter more stress. Who wants that?

Much has been written about organizational change and cultural change and the efforts to get everybody on board. All of these changes are the same and require the same kinds of effort. If people don't understand the goal, don't understand how they can contribute to the goal, they won't support the pain that they have to go through to get there.

When a project fails due to resistance to change, it has still failed. It has failed because of a lack of recognition that people are listening to WII-FM. What's playing on your station?