A Change Will Do You Good. Really. Trust Me.
Author: Stephen Smith, Principal Consultant - Hong Kong, Right Management

I once heard a physicist describe the end of time. She said it was like a photograph. The picture in a photograph will never change and that, she said, is what the end of the universe will be like because time is the measure of change. Everything in life, without exception, changes; change is inevitable and unavoidable. But if it’s inevitable, why is it so hard sometimes? And if it’s unavoidable, why do so many people spend so much effort trying to avoid it?

If you’re in any way involved in organizational learning and talent development, you’re in the change business, so the question of how to motivate change in individuals is high on your agenda. While there are no definitive rules on motivating change, three facts are clear.

May the force not be with you. Let’s start by accepting that some changes are easier than others. If you won the lottery, there’d be some changes in your life but you’d probably enjoy coping with them (and if you don’t, I’m happy to take the money off your hands). If you were diagnosed with a serious illness, there’d be some changes too but you’d probably struggle with them. In most cases, the change we choose is usually easier to cope with than change that’s forced upon us.

Newton said that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Imposed change often causes people to move in the other direction. However, the more they can be involved in the change, the more control they have – real or perceived – the easier it will be for them to accept.

Change? Not on my life. The second fact you have to accept is that the things you think will motivate change, probably won’t. Leadership development expert John Kotter talks about the importance of having a reason for change – what he calls a “burning platform.” One reason that change initiatives fail, he argues, is they lack a sense of urgency. Given that, you’d think that the key to motivating change would be to paint a stark “either-or” scenario but it turns out that people are more complex.

If your doctor told you that you needed to modify your behaviour in order to save your life, you’d change, right? Wrong: statistically, you probably wouldn’t. Doctors at Johns Hopkins studied the behaviour of patients who had undergone heart bypass surgery – one of the most painful, traumatic and preventable surgeries that people can have. After two years, 90% of patients had returned to the lifestyles that had triggered the operation in the first place.

Self-protection at all costs. What could be more motivating than saving your own life? And yet, even the threat of death didn’t work. That brings us to the third point: people resist change out of the need to protect themselves, even when that protection is (literally) killing them.

I spend a lot of time in training rooms, working with groups, and sometimes I’ll encounter a person who seems intent on objecting to just about everything I say. That was difficult to deal with until someone told me that resistance has only two roots: projection of strength or protection of weakness. Over time, I’ve come to believe that they’re the same thing. The first step in change is the hardest: you have to accept that change is necessary. That can feel like a threat, even if the change is vital, positive and one that – deep down – you want to make.

When a burning platform is too big to handle psychologically, people will protect themselves the only way they know how – through denial. And we’re not just talking heart surgery patients here. Change on an organizational or functional level within a business can trigger deep feelings of fear in employees.

As you think about or plan out change in your organization, here are some key points to bear in mind to make the process less traumatic and more productive for all involved:

• Involve people early – Bring them into the process as soon as possible and give them as much control as possible over the changes that affect them. Solicit their views, opinions and suggestions – and honour that input, don’t just stick it in a drawer.
• Involve people individually — Do not assume that what motivates you will motivate someone else. Recognise that any change represents, to a degree, a threat and that individuals understandably want to minimise threats. Help them navigate the changes in ways that connect meaningfully with their fears.
• Involve people emotionally – Engage with people on an honest, personal level. If you’re requesting a difficult change, acknowledge that fact. Encourage people to look for the upside in change but don’t be blind to the downside.
   

Never forget that all organizational change is personal change. Whenever a new system or process or methodology is introduced, you’re essentially asking people to behave differently. It’s critical to connect with people emotionally and present the positive, rather than the negative reasons for change. Most of all, reassure them that no matter how daunting the change might seem, you will help them take those initial steps on the new path.