Change Management Challenges

They say that the only constant is change, and that certainly feels true in business. Yet, instituting change in an organization can still feel challenging. There's resistance, questions, and all sorts of
road bumps to be navigated.

These are questions I got from a business reporting asking about the humanistic and behavioral approach to change management

1. What makes you an expert on change management processes.

I teach the science of how to create behavioral change. Literally – behavioral psychology and operant conditioning techniques to create behavioral change and how it applies to organizational change processes.



2. What tips you have for creating an effective change management process.

Understand that it is a process that will take place over time. Humans aren’t robots that can be reprogrammed. To create behavioral change is a process that takes time. The first step is to have a really good grasp of what behaviors you do want – so you can positively reinforce those behaviors. Often we say we want change, but then discourage the change process by creating perverse incentives or reinforcements that accidentally reward the wrong thing. It’s critical people be clear about what a positive behavioral outcome is.



3. What advice you have for dealing with resistance to change in an organization.

Resistance is part of the process. There is over 70 plus years of research on behavioral learning and unlearning. And whenever you try to create unlearning – meaning change – you get resistance. It’s predicted to occur. So plan for it. Don’t get upset or nervous. Understand the resistance is a normal part of the process. How bad the resistance will depend on several factors, but basically, the more you plan for resistance the easier you will make the change on everyone.   Give people the time they need. Give them outlets for expressing crankiness.  Keep rewarding the new behavior and eventually, almost everyone will get with the new process.


There are some caveats to this.

1. It is much easier to create change when the old system no longer works.
2. Cultural change is much harder to create because it’s really hard to make the old culture – not work anymore, so you have to have a plan for how to help people along in the process and what to do if someone just flat out refuses to change.
3. There is a possibility that the change requested, makes the work environment worse, in which case, the resistance may not just be normal – we don’t wanna change crankiness. It may be legitimate – resistance to something really bad. So it’s important for management to be humble and consider the possibility that the change they requested doesn’t work. You can avoid this by getting input into the new processes from the actual people who will actually have to do the work prior to instituting change.


Learn more: 

I do offer online courses on the science of this for people who want to learn more.

 https://humanistlearning.com/change1/

My why is change so hard program is also available on amazon prime, Udemy and is available in Japanese and in English video.



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