Change is hard

Howard Gardner when asked: "Why do you think it is so hard to bring about change? Answered……

Gardner: "I think it's hard to change people, especially when they've been doing things for a long period of time, and feel that they're doing a reasonable job, and they're pretty unaware that they could do things differently. And, as Al Shanker points out, there isn't very much positive incentive for change. People have to want to change, but it's not like you get any rewards. In fact, often when you try to change things become more difficult and it's easier to go back to what you've done before. So I think that in the absence of compelling models of how things could be different and incentives for people to want to be different it's much easier for people to just stay with what they've been doing. I think that until you have a situation in which people really feel that they want to do things differently, that they feel they'll be rewarded for doing that, that the country cares, … the stakeholders" care, I think it's going to continue to be an uphill battle."