Head and heart – the science of change

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Have you ever noticed that no matter how committed you are to change it always seems to be harder than you think?

Resolve to change is the starting point

When I resolve to make a change in my life I go into ‘research and plan’ mode. I typically mind map the change, decide what needs to be done, add some activities to my next actions list and, often, that’s where it grinds to a halt. It can sit on my task list nagging me for sometimes a week, a month or more. It’s as if it has to filter into my subconscious to mull over before I act. For example, writing this blog took a while and then incorporating some constructive feedback from a valued colleague took longer.

Fear creates resistance

Our prefrontal cortex in the brain is responsible for planning, decision making and moderating behaviour. It is wired to continuously scan for threats. Any change, if seen as a threat, will divert resources in the prefrontal cortex to focus on it until the threat passes. If employees perceive any change as a threat to their daily habits, status quo and their workplace in general, productivity and performance will suffer. These seeds of doubt instantly set up resistance to the change. Try to be open to any doubts raised and explore them.

Lean in

A key to managing successful change is to prepare the leaders to be honest, empathetic and transparent. It is also important to acknowledge the change and treat people with respect. The aim is to make the change as rewarding as possible. So think deeply about the threats that could be triggered in the prefrontal cortex. The best source of information about the changes are the people directly impacted and their team managers who can make or break a change.

It’s important to ask fundamental questions such as:

  • What do people feel that they are losing?
  • What will they gain?
  • How clear is to them about what will change and when?

Don’t underestimate the impacts

The human impact of change is often under estimated and the emotional journey often not acknowledged. Continuous relationship building and good communication are both part of a powerful change strategy. The key to successful change is behavioural – people need to do things differently and embrace it over time. Our brains like habit and routine and it takes the brain a lot of effort to develop new habits. So be mindful of this and walk in others’ shoes for a while.

I find the results gratifying when I work through the resistance while acknowledging it’s there. I also find that during an organisational change you need to be respectful and mindful of everyone’s varying capacity and appetite for your change.

Adopt the growth mindset

Both organisational and individual change takes time but using the growth mindset developed Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University can be fun and fruitful.

The research only tells us what works for some people or organisations, some of the time. It is important to help people explore what works best for them to change, make change stick and measure and share the impact in the workplace. We need to learn ways to sustain the behaviours that create our desired outcomes. To develop a growth mindset you need to focus on learning and improving, work hard, be persistent and reflect on strategies that work or don’t work.

Do you agree? How have you seen this done?

5 ways neuroscience can help make change stick

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One of my reproduced articles that was published earlier this year on CIO.com.au

Five simple tips your change manager should be using to build brain-friendly change in your business

Last month Commonwealth Bank’s CIO David Whiteing delivered a warning to his peers: “If your business transformation plans don’t scare you, they’re not bold enough and you’ll be left behind,” he said.

But what he didn’t mention is that bold plans and brain power are intrinsically connected – or at least they should be. The latest neuroscience can give us insights into emotion, attention, habit, creativity, intuition and resilience.

Here are five simple tips your change manager should be using to build brain-friendly change in your business.

1.  Harness the power of rewards

Threats and rewards are triggered in the prefrontal cortex. When we experience change, the brain goes into threat mode, so change managers should consider the threats that could be triggered by each project.

Start by getting clear on what people find threatening and override these mental events with something positive. Focus on things that matter to the group, and build rewards (perhaps something like training courses or team lunches) that keep staff feeling connected and satisfied while change is happening around them.

To shape this element of your change strategy, ask these fundamental questions at the outset:

What do people feel that they are losing?

  • What will they gain?
  • How clear is to them about what will change and when?
  • Prepare leaders to be honest, empathetic and transparent. They must acknowledge the change and treat people with respect.
  • Support frontline managers in communicating to their teams every step of the way. They are the most trusted source of information for teams. That means creating opportunities for team members to ask questions, express concerns and get answers. It’s also critical to outline what needs to be done – and when.
  • Appoint one or two trusted team members to be the “go to” people: they are local change agents who liaise between the team and management, and support and advocate for their teams throughout the change.

2.  Build a ‘growth mindset’

Change and growth are intrinsically linked. But the problem with change is that people typically resist it: most of us prefer the status quo, however imperfect, over the unknown.

If it’s done well, encouraging a ‘growth’ mindset to change can be fun and fruitful. Carol Dweck, a Stanford University psychology professor developed the theory, which posits that change is easier when it’s seen as an opportunity.

She said: “Mindset is the single attitude that separates those who succeed from those who don’t.”

Still, how do we encourage staff to get to a growth mindset? By helping them to embrace the change, commit to the process and personalise the change: if something feels personal, it’s way more likely to stick.

For his or her part, the change manager needs to be persistent, help the team reflect on strategies that work or don’t and ask – on everyone’s behalf – “How can we learn and grow from this opportunity?”

3.  Encourage connections

The human impact of change is often underestimated and the emotional journey this involves, is frequently not acknowledged. People have a real need to connect to others throughout any major change. Neuroscience teaches us that relationship building and good communication are part of a powerful change strategy.

Things that can help include:

  • Prepare leaders to be honest, empathetic and transparent. They must acknowledge the change and treat people with respect.
  • Support frontline managers in communicating to their teams every step of the way. They are the most trusted source of information for teams. That means creating opportunities for team members to ask questions, express concerns and get answers. It’s also critical to outline what needs to be done – and when.
  • Appoint one or two trusted team members to be the “go to” people: they are local change agents who liaise between the team and management, and support and advocate for their teams throughout the change.

Things that can help include:

  • Prepare leaders to be honest, empathetic and transparent. They must acknowledge the change and treat people with respect.
  • Support frontline managers in communicating to their teams every step of the way. They are the most trusted source of information for teams. That means creating opportunities for team members to ask questions, express concerns and get answers. It’s also critical to outline what needs to be done – and when.
  • Appoint one or two trusted team members to be the “go to” people: they are local change agents who liaise between the team and management, and support and advocate for their teams throughout the change.

4.  Set brain-friendly goals

The key to successful change is behavioural: our brains like habit and routine and it takes the brain a lot of effort to develop new habits.

Goal setting can be really helpful in building new habits, but rewiring the brain needs to ensure the goals are ‘just’ hard enough, are easy to see when achieved and are easy for the business to track and measure. A good change manager should build goals into the change process at every opportunity to make the transition as smooth as possible.

5.  Allow new things to be learned in small chunks

Any repeated, intense learning experience (and let’s face it, most change brings a need for learning) requires sensory and cognitive skills. We need to understand new concepts, translate them into everyday work, memorise new processes and so on to rewire the brain on many levels.

Start the learning using a technical term called ‘distributed practice’: breaking learning into short sessions, ideally, spread over a long period of time. If the change involves formal training, remember that learners also benefit from recall and testing instead of passively reading material.

Learning in this way helps the brain to build the new neural networks needed for change to stick. Within a few days of focussed, repeated learning and practice, neural circuits in the brain begin to fire repeatedly. And as many of us know, the more we do this the better. The old adage ‘neurons that fire together, wire together’ holds true.

What does a Change Manager do?

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Often I get a wide-eye stare when I tell people I’m a Change Manager. Some people think I work in IT, write a bit of communication and organize some training then job done. Others think I swan around having coffee with senior managers and know a lot more than I really do. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Here are some things I’ve done this week as a full-time change manager which many people probably don’t know the job involves:

  1. Develop a stakeholder engagement strategy to get clear on all the project stakeholders. This involves analysing who is influential, on our side, impacted and then assigned a relationship manager. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. Until I’ve spent at least three months in an organisation I’m very dependent on others’ inside organisational knowledge which can be biased.
  2. Identify the stakeholders we have to consult, inform etc.
  3. Identified the many dependencies that impact on the sequence of our change management tasks.
  4. Summarised ‘Why is the change needed?’ and ‘What is the problem we’re trying to solve?’ in one paragraph for the project mission statement.
  5. Developed a communication matrix listing key messages for each project phase.
  6. Developed a library of key messages and themes for communications being sent organisation-wide to build awareness – it will be easier once we’ve worked it out!
  7. Wrote the first draft Fact Sheet for review (I agonized over the wording of the introductory paragraph).
  8. Attended a weekly team coffee catch-up on each person’s achievements and challenges and brainstormed solutions if required. To be honest more time is spent chatting about our lives and being generally social – team building!
  9. Attend a Program Leadership Meeting to discuss the next project phase and how to prepare for it.
  10. Read a paper on the latest research into change and neuroplasticity and how the hormones involved – dopamine, adrenaline and cortisol – are influenced by the level of challenge and what people tell themselves. This is the fun stuff! I’m currently feeling high levels of cortisol – the stress hormone!

It’s a fun challenging job being a Change Manager but anyone who tells you it’s easy is pulling your leg!

Managing Organisational Change

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