The festive season is upon us once more. Most of it I can take, even though I recognize that I'm likely going to sabotage my lifestyle significantly. My diet, my exercise regimen, my work schedule are all going to be seriously disrupted. It will be 'the best of times and the worst of times'. There're going to be a few changes in my life.

A friend told me the other day, You know, I once gave up drinking, smoking, sex and politics - it was the worst twenty minutes of my life! The topic under discussion was dieting within the context of lifestyle. No, it wasn't - it was about 'change', although we didn't realize this at the time. Now, a few days later, I'm thinking seriously about change. No, I'm not! I'm thinking about the 'illusion' we call change.

Everything we discuss and do in the name of change really isn't change at all, it's about 'restoration'. We change our clothes, replacing those we are wearing with fresh ones. We change the oil in the car - replacing old oil with new oil. We change our minds or opinions, substituting one reconfigured thought or judgment with another. All we're doing is maintaining the status quo, for nothing is substantially different.

A public affairs magazine recently claimed that the way we wage war has changed over the past decades. I beg to differ - we are still seeking out and destroying the enemy before he does the same thing to us. We do it in a different ways, using new technologies, and in altered time / space realities, but we're still doing the same thing we've been doing since time immemorial.

What has this to do with us and the business of business? Well, I wish I had a nickel for every time I've been part of a conversation in business regarding the need for change, the strategies of change, the benefits and penalties that are applied if we do - and if we do not!

Bottom line - there is no change, except over a very long time and as the result of consistent effort. That sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? We achieve real change only through consistent effort.

Jim Collins said it very well in his book "Good to Great" when he used the analogies of the chick emerging from the egg and the flywheel. If you haven't read this book yet, please do so. It's the first sensible approach to organizational change that's surfaced for a long time.

The conclusion I've reached, which I'm offering to you for your consideration, is that we're doing it all wrong. We should stop trying to create change by changing systems, processes, policies and procedures - they're all doomed to fail. If, truly, we want to see real change, what we have to do is adopt different principles, values and perceptions.

There are very few of us who can change ourselves, our habits and perspectives without considerable difficulty. How then do we expect to change the entire organization?

Change must start inside individuals because it is values that must 'move' first. If we, each one of us, can make a meaningful shift in what we cherish and protect, in the things that we have learned to count on, in the way we have decided to look at the world around us, perhaps we could change the organizations of which we're a part. Perhaps!

If we cannot master the change process at this level, where we have 100% control supposedly, we will have no effect on the systems we design and implement - they will not change, even though they might appear to be different. We're simply deluding ourselves.

Nature has mastered change as a fundamental art and science, much beyond our puny ability to fully comprehend. 'She' does it slowly, through persistent effort and without fanfares. So, let's stop deluding ourselves. We cannot 'reinvent the wheel' with every hiccup in the market, nor do we need to do so.

What we can, and should do, is learn to recognize what is good and generally beneficial, what sustains or improves our options, what produces a sound return on invested effort, and then keep doing more of it, seamlessly and persistently, and most of all, over the longer term .