People resist change, even when the reason for ‘the new’ is compelling. We prefer what is familiar and stable. It is the unknown, the uncertainty about the change that we find stressful and challenging. And changes in the workplace are no different. In the absence of information and details about the change, people ‘go to the dark side’ and make up their own facts about the change, which are usually. A colleague shared this story with me – they were engaged late in the process to work with a client who had not employed any change management to support consolidating 2 offices; after discussing the upcoming change with employees, stories like this emerged:
My company is consolidating 2 locations into one; therefore we’ll all be working together under one roof; therefore people with the same job will be working together; therefore there will be redundancies; therefore I will be fired.
Given the pace of business today, organizations cannot afford the potential loss of focus and productivity when their employees exert so much mental energy on inaccurate assumptions – I will be fired - based only on one somewhat incomplete fact – we’re consolidating two offices. And once an individual has arrived at their own conclusion – I will be fired – it is incredibly difficult and takes even more energy to change that belief and turn it positive – my team will get so much more done when we’re working together.
So, why is change such a big problem for humans? Research indicates that it’s part of our basic nature – a duality of thought – fight or flight – that is inherent in all of us. Psychiatrists have been exploring this idea since the early 1900s. It is core to Sigmund Freud ‘s theory1 of the conscious, rational Ego and the unconscious, emotional Id. Carl Jung2 explored this further, stipulating the idea of integrating opposites and what he termed the collective conscious and unconscious. Fast forward to today and you get John Haidt’s Happiness Hypothesis 3, where he proposes the ‘elephant and the rider’ model to explain this duality as the struggle for control between the unconscious, emotion – the large and powerful elephant – and the conscious, logic - the small and less powerful rider. The 3 theories of the human conscious have a clear connection:
Freud
Ego = Realistic
Id = Instinctual
Jung
Conscious
Unconscious
Haidt
Logic = Rider
Emotion = Elephant
Balancing this duality of thought is the challenge we all have to deal with in the face of change; this is important because we want to make decisions using the rational part of our brain. When this isn’t in balance and our emotions take over, it can be extremely stressful; this is exacerbated when we are not provided details about the change – why it is happening, what the personal impact will be, and how the change will take place. Change Management is a defined system of tools, processes and actions designed specifically to help address this challenge and minimize the stress of completing the change. This series will explore integrating change management into workplace projects; identifying processes and tactics for helping employees stay out of their ‘dark side’ and move through the change as quickly and with minimal stress.
1 Cherry, Kendra. Freud’s Theory of Id in Psychology. Very Well Mind, October 21, 2019.
2 The Jungian Model of the Psyche, Journal Psyche.
3 Haight, John, The Happiness Hypothesis, 2006.