Why is change so hard?
Category: Blog - August 03, 2007
Change hurts. No, really. From Beehive’s point of view, the outside looking into organizations of all shapes and sizes, we experience first-hand the real physical and emotional toll change can cause at all levels of an organization. We also know that change isn’t optional, nor is it an event with a tidy beginning, middle and end. Organizational change is a critical strategy that must be core, conscious and continual.
Fast Company writer Alan Deutschman got it right in his now classic story titled “Change or Die,” (May 2005). The research shows, according to Deutschman, that when given the choice of life or death, the odds that someone will actually “choose life” — or adopt change — are nine to one against. Deutschman’s article hit the sweet spot on the business circuit and his book “Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life” was published in January.
Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter, a leader in the areas of leadership and change, says in the story that “Changing the behavior of people … is the most important challenge for businesses trying to compete in a turbulent world … The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people.”
Consulting firm Booz Allen and Hamilton published a story titled “The Neuroscience of Leadership” in the summer 2006 issue of strategy+business magazine. Authors David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz state that, “Change is pain. Organizational change is unexpectedly difficult because it provokes sensations of physiological discomfort.”
Harvard’s Kotter believes, “Behavior change happens mostly by speaking to people’s feelings.” Rock and Schwartz essentially concur and go on to say that the key to successful change lies in leadership’s ability to focus employees on the right things and then support them along their paths. Their analysis of the research between brain and organizational behavior boils down to giving the brain what it wants — to focus on solutions instead of problems, let people come to their own answers, and keep them focused on their insights.
Easier said than done, according to the experts. Fast Company’s Deutschman aptly points out in his story, “That kind of emotional persuasion isn’t taught in business schools, and it doesn’t come naturally to the technocrats who run things — the engineers, scientists, lawyers, doctors, accountants and managers who pride themselves on disciplined, analytical thinking.”
So where should business leaders focus? IQ or EQ? Brains or heart? The answer is clearly both. It’s also clear that transformational change — the kind that creates value for employees, customers and shareholders — can only occur when leaders dig deep and make a personal commitment to change.
Lisa Hannum
CEO
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