Change Is Hard

Did you ever notice how hard it is for people to change? I constantly run into this phenomenon when introducing Scrum.
You don't have to go that far though. Take a look around, you can see it everywhere!

Last week I ate some breakfast at a hotel. The room was not crowded and a couple of other people shared my love for early food. At some point a couple came into the room and went into the direction of the table they supposedly had used the day before. Half way through they noticed that the seat was taken. They stalled and started a discussion about the fact that "their" table was taken. I listened and was kind of amused to see that such a thing could be the topic of a discussion. Interestingly, they did not stop. The couple continued to discuss this for the next 15 minutes. And they were not alone: Some more couples - probably all from the same party - encountered the same problem and reacted exactly the same way. I noticed three of those instances before I finished my breakfast and left.

Using the table next from the one you used before is only a tiny change. It does not outlive breakfast or change your life. Still, it can cause you to leave your comfort zone and thus cause an uneasy feeling. People like their habits. People enjoy their comfort zones. This is human. You never know how the comfort zone of any individual looks like until you exceed it.

If such small changes lead to (at least internal) conflicts you definitely should expect that introducing a cultural change trigger like Scrum (or Agile as such) causes a much higher level of uneasiness and conflict. Be prepared for this to happen and help people by showing them the urgency of the change and the strategy how to solve the riddle. Aid them through their journey. Help them find another - hopefully better - breakfast table!