Every print business is being forced to learn new ways of doing business. There are no exceptions. I am fascinated by how an organization responds to the need to learn new ways of running their business. There are meetings (lots of them), there are discussions, often in a hierarchical setting (aka the boss is in the room), there is a lot of agreement, and head nodding. Then when nobody is watching, people go back to the way they are comfortable. This isn’t an exception, it's the rule and in my experience there is rarely malicious intent behind this behavior. Everyone understands “intellectually” that the world is changing around them—they aren’t stupid, they are carrying a super-computer in their pocket. The prefrontal cortex (the rational part of our brain) understands this and agrees that we all need to change (learn new ways of doing business). 

Then when you go back to your desk, your press, your inbox, something else takes over. It's not the prefrontal cortex, it’s the amygdala (the  section of the brain that is responsible for detecting fear). You don’t sit down at your desk and decide you’re scared so you’re not going to change. It's more subtle than that. Your unconscious starts to throw ideas into your head: “if this software does everything they’ve talked about, I’m no longer needed here.” The fear center of your brain starts to go into overdrive to protect yourself.

I know this sounds a little too much like science lecture and not enough about “how the heck do I get my people to quickly learn, adapt, and thrive in this new business environment?” But here’s the thing: unconscious fear is the number one challenge we run into when implementing software solutions at printers. The unconscious part is what makes it such a challenging foe. People might know they are scared but they sure as heck aren’t going to admit it. So instead of facing the real problem (fear), people get really creative about finding other “more rational” things to be against: