What does it mean that schemas about change?

Your model of how change happens determines how you approach change.

Example: Two managers face the same restructuring. One believes change is a linear process — announce the new org chart, train people on new roles, wait for adoption. She rolls out the plan in a single all-hands meeting and is baffled when six months later half the team is still operating under the old structure. The other manager believes change is an emergent process — people need to unlearn old patterns before they can absorb new ones. She starts with small pilots, creates feedback loops, and adjusts the plan as resistance surfaces. Same organization, same restructuring, different schema about change, radically different outcomes.

Try this: Write down how you believe personal change works. Not how you think it should work — how you actually operate when you try to change a habit, a belief, or a pattern. Do you assume change happens in a single decision? Gradually through repetition? Only through crisis? Through deliberate practice? Now look at the last three changes you attempted. Did the approach you used match the schema you just wrote down? If not, identify the hidden schema that actually drove your behavior — the one you act on, not the one you endorse.