Catching up on my favorite business columns, I was reading Failing to cope with change? (FT, October 19) by Stefan Stern.

Maybe because I'm just over 50, I was stopped in my tracks by the statement from an engineering executive that "the longevity of some employees can become a problem. They have seen it all before. They know how things should be done. They have nothing left to learn and no reason, they believe, to start doing things differently."

In my view, for change to happen, you need to bring people on board.

One thing that matters even more is what kind of change.

Is your business going to bounce back by following what others do?

Is it change for change sake?

Will it be change dictated from above?

Is it change some executive getting up in the morning and coming up with an idea that he/she wants to put in place right now.

Instead of shutting down discussion in your organization, inviting a variety of voices to contribute might be more effective.

Decisions still have to be made in the end.

All of them won't please everyone but if they come after a genuine dialogue, there will at least be an understanding from most players of where the decisions came from.

Did our friend, the engineering executive, stop for a minute to ask himself if he tended to think he had all the answers?

Is change all about the mechanics or are people part of a successful process?

Should businesses be a place where we are entitled to our opinions as in a democracy?

Maybe I will find some answers in Who Killed Change (Solving the Mystery of Leading People Through Change) by Ken Blanchard (William Morrow, May 2009).

One for the Just Over 50 and Not Dead Yet on Monday Work Etiquette # 113

Previously: Have a Strategy for When You Get Discouraged