Ask any group what stops them from bringing about change and you’ll get a long list of obstacles: things like silos, hierarchy, tradition and good old-fashioned politics.
But on every list, usually near the top is FEAR.
Here are four classic fears that block change, and what to do about them.
1. Fear of ambiguity. New ideas tend to be light-on for detail and some people hate that, so be careful who you involve in the early stages. Not everyone likes ideas served raw.
2. Fear of being an old dog faced with a new trick. Most people underestimate their ability to learn so give them plenty of support and patience when trying new things. Remind them of all the changes they’ve embraced over the years; they may have forgotten.
3. Fear of losing power or privilege. Machiavelli said ‘He who innovates has for his enemies those well-off under the current regime’ and it’s as true today as it was in his time. People in power expect a key role in any change and may even have something to offer the ‘new regime’, so if you get them involved early they can make great allies.
And the Big One:
4. Fear of failure. This one comes up all the time, even though it’s usually mislabelled, as the real dread here is blame and ridicule. We can’t protect people from ‘failure’ (whatever that is) but we can all resist the temptation to make them feel bad when things don’t go to plan.
Ultimately, all fears are variations on the deepest dread of all: The Unknown.
Give people the truth and see how fearless they can be.
James
Giving someone the ‘truth’ (even if we are omnipotent enough to know it) will not necessarily increase their belief in the reliability of their predictions about how important facets of their life will be affected when things change. Lack of this belief is a root cause of insecurities that surface as ‘fears’. More is needed for someone to invest their energy and commit to a change that they ‘fear’.
Jason
Absolutely agree with your last point: information, on it’s own is not necessarily enough to convince people to embrace change but you’d be amazed how many organisations try to get people to change without telling them WHY, WHAT or even HOW. And you’re right; no-one can own the ‘truth’, let alone predict the future but if more of our ‘leaders’ were upfront about that, the more likely we’d be open to change, don’t you think? Thanks for the comment James!
James
I suggest that the four factors you mention are symptomatic of a core issue – namely, individual need for security.
My understanding is that the mechanism by which any specific change can affect a person’s feeling of security, (and attitude to the change), varies by the extent to which it causes a decrease in the reliability of the person’s predictions of how what is going on around them will impact them in the long term.
Accordingly, information that is provided has to be targeted to increasing the reliability of these predictions in the areas that are most important to the person concerned.
Since each person have different levels of need for security (and, hence, have their own unique, root cause, issues, which any change will impact, with varying degrees of importance and severity, on security) information has to be specific, based on a reliable, root cause, understanding of each individual, that relates to how they are predicting their specific underlying concerns, rather than to the ‘leader’s’ general assumptions.
In addition to need for security, there are factors, relating to individual need for satisfaction, which also impact on acceptance of, or resistance to, change, but these are outside this discussion.
Jason
Oh, absolutely the four classic fears are symptoms of a deeper issue, that’s the point I was trying to make at the end. But the need you’ve identified as ‘security’ I tend to think of as ‘certainty’ we want to be sure of SOMETHING, even in situations where we can’t access any solid information at all (we’ve seen this in disasters, where rapid change is demanded of us all even though no-one has a clue what will happen next) yet we manage to find certainty in something other than information; our selves, our faith, our community or our leaders. Of course you’re spot-on about the level and depth of information that makes change more palatable, but I’ve yet to encounter anyone with that kind of diligence and attention to detail. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places! Thanks for the insights James!
James
We don’t need to be certain – just to have confidence (or belief) in the reliability of our predictions. Certainty requires stability and we live with change.