A role for individuality and mystery in “managing” change

This philosophical paper explores why people have so much trouble understanding, coping with and managing change. It looks behind the problem to try to understand its origins. It provides an account of human nature that suggests people are “naturally” capable of coping with change but that we have forgotten how to do so because of our intellectual history. It suggests the pervasive influence of scientific paradigms and rationalism has turned us into conformists who are afraid to trust our own individual experiences and who rely on others to validate them and tell us how to respond. Change makes it difficult to conform because we do not know on whom to rely for validation; we do not know which paradigm is “right.” This paper suggests some current management remedies respond to this conformity problem but others may exacerbate it. It offers its philosophical analysis as a tool to interpret and evaluate such remedies from a fresh perspective.