January 13, 2011

Why Change Efforts Fail (and How to Change That)

Editor's Note: This is a guest post by BrillianceInc.

Resolve No More

A few years ago, I gave up the practice of making New Year’s Resolutions, thus giving up the sense of failure and accompanying guilt that rolled around mid-March. Maybe you are one of those people that always keep your resolutions. If so, stop reading. If not, don’t despair: you are entirely normal (unlike those other freaks).

Blame it on the Brain

Here’s neuroscientist Jeffrey Schwartz’ explanation for why we so often fail to meet our goals:

“Change is pain.”

“Trying to change any hardwired habit requires a lot of effort in the form of attention…which leads to a feeling that many people find uncomfortable. So they do what they can to avoid change.”

So, it’s not entirely your fault. Your brain is set on protecting you from discomfort. The result: you further cement hard-wired habits.

The good news: you can become the boss of your brain.

First, you have to better understand your specific resistance to change. For this, we can look to the amazing work of two researchers, Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. In their book, Immunity to Change, they describe how each of us has a sophisticated, often subconscious, system of practices, fears, and assumptions that keep us locked in place and thwart our attempts to change.

They write: “The most reliable route to ultimately disrupting the immune system begins by identifying the core assumptions that sustain it.” Examples of big assumptions include:

People are less capable than I (so I won’t delegate or will force people to do things my way only)
People are not to be trusted (so I withhold information)
If I speak my mind, I will be eaten (so I keep my mouth shut and my contributions locked in my head)
______ is evil (so I lose all compassion and curiosity, diminishing any chance of having a rewarding relationship)

Once the assumptions are identified, you can begin to test their validity.

It Works

In 2010, I began using their simple Immune Identification process with private clients and workshop participants. In one team offsite, a VP stopped me at the break after about 45 minutes with the process and said “I’ve been to a lot of these meetings and I have never seen people learn so much about themselves and reveal so openly as I just witnessed.”

Whether you want to change yourself, an employee, or an organization, begin by discovering the change immune system, or risk wasting precious energy and resources for short-lived improvements.