Why change does not happen

I’ve been reading an old interview with Chip Heath about the emotional motivations, reasons and conditions of change. And there some that are good food for thoughts.

First reason is related with the way our brains work – and any organization does.

We have to accept that there are two sides we think about change: the rational and the emotional. And most of the times managers and executives give reasons for the rational but no motivators for the emotional.
There is a metaphor for this, that compares the dinamics inside our brains to a rider over an elephant; the rider is the rational part, that decides where to go, and the elephant is the emotional that adds the energy. But I don’t like this metaphor, because it is very easy for us to identify with the rider and to think that the elephant is an strange, external element. I prefer to use the metaphor, taken from buddhist tradition on mind transformation: our mind is like a monkey leading an elephant. We are both of them – and neither of them. The way we see a change or a project is the sum of both.

So, first reason for a change to fail is that we only focus on the rational part. Sometimes that reasons produce fear, and the natural reaction to fear is to repeat the same that the organization did in the past, even harder – exactly the opposite of what a change should be.

The second reason is that executives (in the best scenario) think about change in two phases: planning and execution. But there is something missing. The organization is not always planning or executing. Sometimes the organization is just wandering in a nightmare because what was planned does not work, or they don’t know how to execute the plan.
This phase has to be taken into account. Let’s be ready for that moments and let’s look for workarounds or ways out of them.

The third reason is that people – and companies – tend to see only the weak areas, and look for something outside to improve. That has been proven not to work. Instead of that, it is much effective to look into the strenghts and capabilities and build on them.
The advice should be: be the best yourself, instead the second apple, nike, procter&gamble or coke. Look for successes internally, look for the moments in which the right attitudes show up. That’s much more motivating, and it gives real and close examples of what to do.
If there isn’t any internal example available, let’s create it. Develop a quick win, create an internal pilot or look for the people more likely to addopt the change, and use them as a seed.