Turning a Ship

Have you ever watched a cruise ship turn around? I have. You stare at this massive ship that seems to take over the cove. It seems to not move at all. You turn away and stop watching turn back and hey its moved a little. You watch and watch and don't see anything until again you turn your attention away. Eventually you notice the ship has turned. It was infinitely slow but hey it made it all the way around and is now able to pull out of the cove and head to open sea.

Change is like this. People react badly. They don't want that shipped turned. You are disrupting their normal, the expected. They come at you and get mad and unload and wonder why you would disrupt what they felt was working.

But it is just like that ship. It is slowly turning and you are making an impact. This is the situation I find myself in. I changed a program two years ago. It was drastic and not what even I had expected to do. It wasn't until I realized how desperately, quickly a change needed to be made did I do it. And even then I was nervous.

This seems to be the time of year, the anniversary of the change that certain people get upset again. I am fortunate to have enough people who have are in favor of the change. Yet every so often I need to remind myself of that ship in the harbor. It seemed to take forever but when I wasn't paying too much attention I was able to see the turn happening. The turning is happening but so slowly my eye can't follow.