Put up your hand if you’ve ever resisted change in any of the companies where you’ve worked? 

Friska Wirya, the 151st person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, would like to have a word with you.

Friska is a change management consultant: she helps companies make and sustain fundamental changes, to get the benefits from implementing new systems or introducing more efficient processes.

The reason companies need Friska is because of people like you and me – we resist change because we feel it threatens our job or status or power.

As Friska explained, people resist change for different reasons. Part of her role is to understand what objections individual stakeholders might have, so she can figure out how to make the change more appealing to them, and the ways they could benefit from the change.

I’ve got no doubt Friska is brilliant at what she does – she’s smart, tough and an excellent communicator. 

Friska was born in Indonesia, moved to Perth as a baby and then won a scholarship to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. After a stint as a management consultant, she returned to Australia and shifted into change management.