{"id":10350,"date":"2012-07-30T07:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=10350"},"modified":"2012-07-27T15:27:47","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T22:27:47","slug":"why-wont-they-change-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=10350","title":{"rendered":"Why Won’t They Change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It seems like I\u2019m talking and writing about change quite a lot these days. And there\u2019s good reason for that. It\u2019s an inescapable part of our lives. And we still resist.<\/p>\n

I remember sitting through a staff meeting back when I was in my corporate job, listening to my boss run through a series of issues, update the status on a few large initiatives, and then to close, he told the staff that \u201cthings around here are going to have to change.\u201d Well, that sounds subtly threatening.<\/p>\n

In effect, what he was really saying was, \u201cAll of you<\/span><\/em> have to change.\u201d At least, that is exactly what many of us in the room heard him saying.<\/p>\n

Probably not the best way to deliver that message.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Project Managers, you are inextricably tied to change. It\u2019s part of your DNA. Pretty much everything you do is centered around the concept of change. Isn\u2019t that what projects are all about? But what happens when the changes apply to people? Why is it so much more complicated?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.\u201d \u2013 Charles Kettering<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Most of the time, changing our own behavior is difficult. Changing the behaviors of others, or of a group of people, can seem almost impossible. That\u2019s because, as I\u2019ve written previously, we tend to view change as a threat.<\/p>\n

Think about this \u2013 a recent study on health trends showed that only one in nine people who underwent open-heart surgery were able to change their lifestyle, and these people had the ultimate motivation \u2013 possible death.<\/p>\n

\u201cChange before you have to.\u201d \u2013 Jack Welch<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Like the boss I referred to earlier, many times we tend to club people over the head with change, rather than engage them in the process and make it feel less threatening. In today\u2019s business environment, and particularly in your role as PM, the work you\u2019re doing is highly complex and non-routine. That, in itself, makes the carrot-and-stick approach to change completely ineffective.<\/p>\n

So what can we do to get people to more readily embrace change? There are a few techniques we can use that are effective, available, and maybe most importantly \u2013 relatively or completely low-cost.<\/p>\n

Most of the time, leaders tend to think that external rewards such as promotions, bonuses, or pay increases are the best way to motivate people to change. But, they have limited use, because you can\u2019t continue to use them every time you want to engage people in change.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.\u201d<\/em> – Arnold Bennett<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Recent advances in neuroscience suggest that there are other, more effective ways to engage and motivate people in the change process. \u201cThe brain ideally likes to feel a sense of increasing status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness.\u201d*<\/p>\n

Here are four easy-to-use, effective approaches to encourage change:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In the workplace, one of the most effective ways to increase a person\u2019s status is to publicly praise them for a job well done. The positive effect of this public recognition can be long-lasting, and can resonate with people for years.<\/li>\n
  2. To appeal to their need for certainty, you can provide them with access to more information, the big picture, as it were. Giving people access to information meets their need for certainty, which decreases the potential for fear and resistance, and allows them to better solve more difficult problems since they are not in threat avoidance mode.<\/li>\n
  3. If you want to appeal to peoples\u2019 sense of autonomy, you can give them the opportunity to work flexible schedules, work from home, or make more of the routine decisions without having to ask permission first.<\/li>\n
  4. When responding to peoples\u2019 need for a sense of relatedness, provide them with more opportunities to network with peers or to attend seminars and conferences.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The point is \u2013 change is hard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    But we don\u2019t have to make it harder through the way we handle it. When we seek to understand the dynamics of change, and how people tend to view and respond to change, we can find more effective ways to engage them and ultimately to gain their full commitment to the changes.<\/p>\n

    * \u201cYour Brain at Work,\u201d by David Rock<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It seems like I\u2019m talking and writing about change quite a lot these days. And there\u2019s good reason for that. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1522,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,1,849,939],"tags":[204,83,33,1370,31,131,193],"class_list":["post-10350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-communications","category-miscellaneous","category-team-leadership","category-change-2","tag-change","tag-commitment","tag-common-sense","tag-leadership","tag-motivation","tag-people","tag-teams"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1522"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10350"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10390,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10350\/revisions\/10390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}