Yet
change is not so easy for humans and can breed anxiety and fear. But that’s not
just because we are creatures of habit. Neurosciences and cognitive sciences
show that change is difficult for humans for three core reasons.
Three Core Reasons for Resistance to Change
1. Habits are powerful and efficient
Your
brain creates a mind map that sorts reality into a perceptual order and creates
effective, quickly established habits. This means your brain limits what it
sees and reality conforms to past perceptions.
Why is
this a problem? Because it means all of your lessons in life and business keep
you from seeing things in fresh ways. Counter-intuitive isn’t it? The more
experience you have, the more limited you can become. We’ve all seen leaders
“stuck in their ways,” and know how frustrating, and potentially damaging to
the business, this can be.
2. Your brain hates change
When
you’re learning something new, your prefrontal cortex has to work very hard.
And your brain uses 25% of your total energy! It’s no wonder why we feel worn
out and our head hurts from learning.
3. You have to “see and feel” new ways of doing
things
To
really make a change, you can’t just read about something; experiential
learning is critical. Why? Because as you learn, your brain actually changes,
reflecting new decisions, mind maps, and reality sorting. So when change
presents itself and you haven’t experienced what that change will be like, your
brain will hijack the new thought patterns and try to put your mindset back
into the old way of thinking.
These
three factors paint a surprising picture: the limitations to growth are really
self-imposed by the mind maps of former successes. All of our past perceptions
hold back what we are able to perceive in the present.
Besides
this unconscious self-limiting behavior, the fear that change elicits is also
limiting. This is called “fear conditioning.”
What is Fear Conditioning?
The
brain stores all the details from a particular fear stimulus, such as time of
day, images, sounds, smells, and weather, in your long-term memory. That makes
the memory “very durable,” but also fragmented, triggering the full gamut of
physical and emotional responses every single time a similar fear stimulus
shows up.
As
research from the University of Minnesota explains it, “Once the fear pathways
are ramped up, the brain short-circuits more rational processing paths and
reacts immediately to signals from the amygdala. When in this overactive
state, the brain perceives events as negative and remembers them that way.”
So
remember that initiative that totally bombed? Your brain may be using that
experience to prevent you from other, more successful initiatives.
What Neuroscience Tells Us about Fear
Neuroscience
has more to say on the topic of fear. The main thing to note is that when the
fear system of the brain is active, exploratory activity and risk-taking are
turned off. So when our brains anticipate loss, we tend to hold onto what we
have. In simple terms, fear prompts retreat, which is the opposite of progress.
And what do leaders need? Progress.
So how
can leaders take all of these facts about change and fear in stride and make progress
anyway? What do you do if your brain is constantly fighting change, yet you
need to make changes in order to push your business to the next level? Here are
three pre-emptive steps to take in order to initiate and become accustomed to
change.
What Can You Do to Initiate Change?
1. Get out of the office
Stop
going to your industry trade shows; see what other industries are doing
instead. Don’t focus on current market segments – look at new ones.
2. Go exploring
Transform
into an amateur anthropologist and spend a day in the life of your customer or
non-customer. This helps you listen to real pain points and quickly come up
with new solutions to persistent problems.
3. Build an innovative culture
It’s a
big leap from thinking you are innovative to being innovative. Being innovative
requires you to build a culture of innovation. How do you do that? By creating
a methodology that encourages people to share ideas.
4. Experience the changes yourself that you’re
asking your organization to understand
In
“Neurosciences and Leadership,” David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz tell us: “When
people solve a problem themselves, the brain releases a rush of
neurotransmitters like adrenaline.” This rush will inspire you to embrace and
champion the change you are requesting of your teams.
Do you
have any tips for instigating change in an organization? I’d love for my
community to hear them.
Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me
an email, or find me on Twitter.
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