What is needed to make the changes successful?

According to studies, only about 30% of organizational changes succeed fully in accordance with their goals. 50-60% partially achieve the goals, and about 70% either fail completely or fall significantly short of their goals (Kotter, 1995; McKinsey & Company; Harvard Business Review). Reasons for failures are typically named as inadequate communication, support and engagement, underestimation of the impact of change, and failure to support change by the culture and structures of the organization. However, it is still not enough to name them, as change must be achieved at the individual level.

Learning is change, growing is change, and change always happens or fails at the individual level. An experience that is sufficiently halting and emotionally uplifting changes immediately, but in principle the brain resists change and the underlying factors for success must be dug up from the subconscious. According to research, only one in nine heart bypass surgery patients change their daily lifestyles permanently. However, in the light of current knowledge, a person can change almost everything in his person if he so chooses. Deviating from previous notions, only mood persistence and conscientiousness would appear to be fairly permanent traits throughout life (Harris et al. Personality Stability From Age 14 to Age 77 Years, 2016). Of course, some changes are easier than others, but commitment pays off. In one experiment, subjects took 18 to 254 days to automate a new way of eating, drinking, or acting (Lally et al. 2010). Addictions are their own number — for example, in the longitudinal study of smokers (USDHHS 1990), 43% of those who had not smoked completely for 12 months started smoking again, and only after 5 years of non-smoking the figure dropped to less than 10%.

Why is change so hard to make?

The brain's job is to keep us safe. They prefer old habits and habitual routines — even if they no longer serve their purpose — for they have, after all, demonstrably succeeded and survived to this day. To ensure speed, the brain builds through life beliefs, model solutions, and worldviews, against which the brain evaluates information from the environment and the body. Things that rise to consciousness are already very much edited (and colored) on the basis of one's own experience history. That's why, in addition to our wonderful selves and all our fine skills, we rush into a new job (and relationship), but also with unmistakable certainty all our old ill-served ways of acting and interacting. The patterns of activity stored in the brain work like highways: they are fast, smooth and effortless, but they are also reached on autopilot. And, if you don't have Lahti on the map, it's hard to end up there. The same can be described in such a way that if Counter Strike is loaded on the machine, MindGraft cannot be played.

Learning something new requires conscious effort and energy -- loading new pathways into the brain. It requires activation of the “judgment center or executive branch” of the prefrontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. Scientists claim that in everyday life we do 95% of things on autopilot. Hierarchically structured and automated information processing is efficient and fast, but the cost of fast processing of a continuous huge amount of information is staggering — the brain quickly bounces from small crumbs of information to conclusions that are not objective truths. Conscious judgment, emotional regulation, self-management, and new planning all take place on 5% basis, consume a lot of oxygen and sugar, take time, and tire quickly.

The change also raises the stress level, as a result of which the brain begins to close the judgment center and divert resources to so-called border control and ensuring that you stay alive (read more about the effects of stress in my other blog). Change stress quickly begins to interfere with thinking and self-regulation. As a result, it is easy to get stuck in the old, even if you have the will and the change is your own wish. Also, positive, wonderful changes make the brain worry. You catch this when you think about how the joy of positive changes such as falling in love and starting a new job is limited by various worries fed by the brain. It is also important to realize that resisting change only takes energy and raises anxiety.

What happens when change comes from the outside, as inevitable?

People typically seek help only when an action and habit is no longer “playing out” and constantly causes grief, worry and conflict. One of the prerequisites for change is a sufficient compulsion, but most changes, in my experience, fall on the difficulty of tolerating unpleasant feelings such as insecurity and anxiety.

The stress level is raised especially by changes that you would not want or feel that you cannot influence sufficiently. The stages of change and the emotions they raise are often described in the context of professional life, using a curve originally developed by Kübler-Ross to model grief work. At EASEL, we also add a “positive change curve” to the same picture to remind you that some people think that change, for example, initiated in the workplace can be good and inspiring! How we react to change is influenced by our own personality and experience, as well as the overall load of the current life situation, the resources left behind and how we perceive the change. Often the changes come “on top of the rest” and the basic task/everyday life still has to spin. Therefore, positive change is burdened, although not as heavily as negative.

People in the work community are divided along different curves and are each going slightly different places. It's pretty natural that it can lead to experiences of lack of being heard. At the same time, negative group dynamic phenomena that interfere with the focus on the basic task are easily set in motion. When the stress level rises, one's own emotional reactions begin to take over and one's own capacity to perform work tasks and especially demanding interaction work decreases. The ability to hear others' messages as they mean them is diminishing, and the resources to regulate one's own communication are not always at their best. There is also an increased likelihood of unintentional communication interruptions. The soup is quite ready, if you do not become aware of the situation and grasp it both individually and collectively.

Ponder something positive and some change that you experience as negative and mirror them in the curves. Do you recognize the stages and the emotions associated with them? Both adults and children can be in the same transformation at different curves and at different stages. How might that show up in your work? How do you take that into account?

INIn moments of anticipation, it is good to think that new landscapes can only be reached through new doors... Something good can follow!

So what predicts the success of the change?

Understanding how people change their behavior helps us support both ourselves and others in the midst of change. Whether your role is a parent, teacher, supervisor, coach or friend — or whether you are in the midst of a change yourself — it is useful to assess the prerequisites for the success of the change and to understand the potential pitfalls. The so-called predictors of change are:

1. Understanding that some thing/mode of action, etc. needs to be changed

2. Sufficient compulsion

3. Expected consequences of change are seen as positive, desire for change

4th. Hopefulness about the chances of success of change, sufficient knowledge and skills

5. Resilience to anxiety and other uncomfortable feelings

6. Social support for change

7. Actions to implement change

(Paraphrasing Fred J. Hanna Difficult clients in therapy)

Ponder some change you are making and estimate the fulfillment of each prediction sign by, say, scoring 0-3p. Where are you going? What do you need?

Change takes place in stages, and everyone moves at their own pace.

Transformational phase model (Prochaska, DiClemente & Norcross) is a widely studied, interdisciplinary (biopsychosocial) and unifying principles of psychotherapeutic change description of the stages that people go through when changing their behavior. The time required by each stage is individual, but the tasks required to move from one stage to the next remain the same. It is also known what principles facilitate progress and reduce resistance and setbacks, and that only a small proportion (often around 20% in studies) of people are ready to make any changes immediately. The transformation phase model has:

• Preliminary consideration: Change does not seem necessary, at least in my opinion.
• Consideration: The need for change is recognized, but the effort and efficiency are contemplated. The stage can last for months and years — the signs of prophecy must be fulfilled in order to proceed from this stage.
• Preparation: Commitments are made to make a change, information is collected, plans are made, but the start is still postponed — “I will call there next week”, “I will then start on summer vacation”...
• Action: Change is beginning to be implemented in practice.
• Maintenance: New habits take root and become part of everyday life.

It's a good idea to think about what needs to be or happen first for something else to become possible? Simply changing actions/behaviors will not succeed, at least not permanently, unless there is a change in the attitudes, thought patterns, beliefs, etc. below. Even after that, you still have to persistently run new pathways into the brain before the new habit becomes established and automated. (Read my other blog on emotion regulation)

Concrete tips for making a change

If you want to change a habit or habit in your life:

• Write down what you want to change and why.
• Identify situations in which the old habit is automatic and in an attempt to change the mind and body resist.
• Think about what worked in the old way and how you could satisfy the same need in a new way.
• Strengthen your tolerance for uncomfortable feelings — mindfulness can help.
• Modify your environment to support change.
• Formulate your goals positively and promise yourself (and others if you dare!) do your best.
• Rejoice in progress, but be gracious in the back packs.

New landscapes can only be reached through new doors!

In other words, only one in three changes initiated in the workplace succeeds as planned. In light of this knowledge, it is easy to understand why investing in change management and staff involvement is vital. But changing how we operate is not just about what we want, but also about what we think is possible, how we are able to function under pressure, and how the environment views us and our changes.

Change is a process. It is not a straight road, but a route full of bends, intersections and sometimes stepping back. When we understand how change happens and what conditions are needed to support it, we can not only be more successful in our own changes, but also help others in the midst of them.

And in the end -- the old path becomes grassy when you cross the new road enough times.

If you want tools and tasks to support the development of an interaction culture for yourself or your team/work community, you can find our online course at easelonline.fi and from our Facilitation Service easeltraining.fi You can send us an email info@easeltraining.fi

Tell me how we can be of help!

Mari