With the amount of uncertainty around in this challenging economic climate, getting projects to work is crucial. Yet 70% of change programmes fail or only partially succeed. For leaders that is high risk. In a recent Economist report a lack of buy-in from people was cited as the reason for the failure. Does this have to be the case? The latest neuroscience research, the science of how the brain works, is beginning to show us why change is painful, why it is resisted, and what leaders can do to make change easier and to institute new ways of working.
What we often hear from leaders is that the resistance is not direct. At an intellectual level people agree with the proposition. Leaders tell us time and again that people revert back to their old ways of working or even fail from the outset to make the shift to the new roles and work methods. Incentives and threats drive resistance underground.
In other words there is no logical reason for people to continue working in the old way. But before we make judgments, reflect on when you personally may have resisted change. We have all done this at some time, even when logically we know the direction is right.
This resistance begins to make sense when we look at the results of neuroscientific research into how the brain works. Developments in technology have allowed scientists to literally see how the brain deals with change.
The research shows that people's response to change is pretty common at a biological level. Change creates a painful experience in the brain. Much like being punched or breaking a bone. Change activates the prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is often called the executive area. It is responsible for goal setting, decision making and planning, and for error detection. Our brain responds to regular ways of doing things and encourages us to create patterns. This reduces uncertainty and saves energy. Change is a form of error detection. These patterns act as a short cut; you don't have to work out how to do something like open a door every time. These types of routine activities are run by the basal ganglia, which is much more efficient in terms of energy usage. After a period of time, our job becomes one of these regular actions. We get comfortable doing the 'old' process and routine. The role is predictable. Doing something different to the norm, is the equivalent of telling the brain something is wrong. This activates the emotional centre, the amygdale which controls our flight or fight response. The new behaviour is registered as an error and as a potential threat in the brain. Whilst the prefrontal cortex can override the more primitive emotional centre this takes a lot of energy and it soon becomes fatigued.
Unfortunately traditional change management approaches are not compatible with this new understanding of the brain's functioning. Bonuses and incentives or threats of job loss will not overcome the biological reaction to change.
One reason for this is that traditional change management relies on selling the change and, in the extreme, simply telling people to adopt the new behaviour. This approach creates warning messages in the prefrontal cortex. The way to get past the prefrontal cortex threat response is to help people to decide for themselves that the new approach is what they want.
Jan Hills (pictured) partner responsible for talent and leadership at Orion
