Information sessions, Q&As, training courses and coaching all provide ways for people to get those epiphanies without feeling as if something is being forced on them. "Learning is the antidote to change resistance," says Wakefield. "Learning lets you reframe the change from being something bad for you to something that can have value for you."

The learning environment has to be one in which employees will not be reprimanded or embarrassed for revealing their discomfort with the new way of doing things. "You have to give people the sense that feeling uncomfortable is a normal part of change and address their concerns about losing face because of their lack of confidence and competence," says Wakefield. One of the ways to do that is to put people together who share a similar status in the organization and are facing a similar change so they can see that they're not alone - a species of corporate support group. When groups are too threatening, individual coaching can help.

The Hard Edge of the Soft Stuff

Change management is time-consuming and hard to quantify for process-oriented CIOs. But avoiding the challenge leads to failure. "Anybody can stick $2000 in someone's face to get them to finish a job, but it's the people who can inspire others to follow them that are the most successful in the long run," says PharMerica's Toole. "The soft stuff is important."

But inspiring others to change isn't a matter of charisma or charm, say the experts. It's finding a way to spark those epiphanies.

Sparks's latest tactic for engaging his staff's prefrontal cortexes was to bring in an outside consultant to discuss the ITIL program and to field concerns.

"We had an outstanding instructor, and she was able to address many of the questions people had," recalls Sparks. "I could begin to see the lights come on in some of the [sceptics]. After a long meeting, one of my people stood up and said: 'You know, we should have started working on this [automated monitoring] six months ago'."

SIDEBAR:Change Management Rules

Though we've heard these nostrums over and over, scientific research proves that they work

1.Stay on message. The brain needs repetition to move a concept from the prefrontal cortex, which handles unfamiliar concepts and complex decisions, to the basal ganglia, where habits are stored. For new concepts to become hardwired, those pathways have to be reinforced continually.

2.Keep it simple. The prefrontal cortex can entertain only a handful of concepts at a time. Therefore, complex projects need to be refined to one or two goals that businesspeople can easily understand so that their prefrontal cortexes do not become overwhelmed, causing fatigue and the psychological and physical distress that leads to anger.