Positive Psychology, Change and the Bottom Line, Part V: The ABCs of Positive Psychology - Behavior
In our previous posts on Positive Psychology, we've talked about what positive psychology really is, about how neuroplasticity affects the way we learn, about the essential factors in creating the motivation to change, and about the implications of all this for organizations.
Now we're going to look at the ABCs of positive psychology: Affect, Behavior and Cognition.
All 3 of these - affect, behavior, cognition - are necessary for change to occur. They are important individually, but their real power is in the way they intersect and align.
Today, we're going to talk about Behavior.
Behavior
Sometimes, we go to a class or a workshop and we leave all fired up: We've learned a new way to approach problem solving, or gained a new skill in handling conflict, or we've just been inspired by someone who is doing great things in their field.
We go back to work, full of ideas about how we're going to Change the World or even just our own corner of it...and then, after a few days or weeks, the changes we had resolved to make either fail to launch or fall by the wayside.
Why? Because any real, lasting change requires real, consistent behavior change.
Whenever I work with a group, the last thing I ask at the end of the day is "What will you do differently tomorrow (or on Monday morning)?" It's a critical question, because in order for our situation to become different, we have to behave differently.
Work smart - and then smarter
In 1993, Anders Ericsson studied elite musicians. He found that they work hard, but more importantly, they work smart - and then challenge themselves to work even smarter. Elite musicians practiced: they worked at their craft consistently, day in and day out. They worked smart: they had teachers to coach them and provide feedback all along the way. And they worked smarter: they didn't practice too much - 4-6 hours a day, no more.
Edward Taub, a leading neuroplasticity researcher who works with stroke victims, found a similar trend with his clients. After 4 hours of therapy a day, stroke victims made no more positive gains when they spent additional hours on speech or mobility therapy. At that point, they simply reached a point of diminishing returns.
Ericsson found that elite performers needed to avoid exhaustion to maximize gains from long-term practice - the same could probably be said of Taub's stroke victims. This flies in the face of what we learn in the business world: We're told and taught - and most of us think - that the more hours we work, the better we'll be. We don't take vacations, or even a day off without our iPhone or Blackberry.
However, most of us would find that we'd think better and be more productive if we actually took more time off. Disconnecting for 48 straight hours on a weekend doesn't mean you're not committed to your career - it means you return to the fray rested, recharged and able to tackle challenges more effectively than you do when you're chronically exhausted and drained.
Behavior, action and lasting change
In positive psychology, 'coping' is a term used in relation to self-esteem. The idea is that we learn when we take action - when we put ourselves at risk in some way and then cope with the consequences. It's acting outside of our comfort zone which builds our self-esteem. It doesn't matter if you succeed or fail - simply taking action drives the new neural pathways which lead to greater positivity and success.
People who enjoy lasting change have a bias for action - and for working smarter. The same can be said for organizations. When organizations try to change but then fail to implement behavioral changes which will reinforce the change, the change won't stick. Similarly, if change isn't accompanied by sufficient downtime for individuals to process, adapt and build positive new neural pathways, the change won't deliver the desired results.
Next time we'll talk about the C in the ABCs of change: Cognition.
Positive Psychology, Change and the Bottom Line, Part V: The ABCs of Positive Psychology - Affect
In our previous posts on Positive Psychology, we've talked about what positive psychology really is, about how neuroplasticity affects the way we learn, about the essential factors in creating the motivation to change, and about the implications of all this for organizations.
Now we're going to look at the ABCs of positive psychology: Affect, Behavior and Cognition.
All 3 of these - affect, behavior, cognition - are necessary for change to occur. They are important individually, but their real power is in the way they intersect and align.
Let's talk about Affect first.
Affect
Typically, when we think about emotions in the workplace, we think of them as being negative. We think that 'real professionals' don't bring their emotions to work, and they definitely never reveal their emotions in the boardroom - to do so would be seen as a sign of weakness.
Except that all of us have emotions, and it's not all that easy (or even possible) to leave them at the front door of the office. We may experience anger, frustration or fear as a result of something that happens at work; we may also experience more positive emotions like joy, satisfaction or excitement.
All of these emotions are giving us important clues about ourselves and our situation, and if we pay attention to them, rather than doing our best to suppress them in the name of 'professionalism', we might succeed in using them to our advantage.
When an organization is going through change, it's often the negative aspects of emotions which are most talked about: Those who oppose the change, those who challenge the change, and those who resist the change. But even these negative reactions to change provide important information to the organization.
We don't always focus on the positive emotions associated with a change, but I think it's important to pay just as much attention to them as we do to the negative emotions.
Did you know that 80% of individuals who experience some kind of trauma actually experience post-traumatic growth, not post-traumatic stress? That's a good endorsement of our inner strength and resilience. However, we most often hear about the 20% who suffer from PTSD. Now, I'm not minimizing that 20% - their experience is real and difficult. But it's interesting that we don't focus on the majority who experience something more positive - and it leaves many of us with the notion that there is only one way to respond to trauma (PTSD) when in fact many of us respond much more positively.
When we examine PTSD and PTG (post-traumatic growth), we see that it's often a single event which leads to either one. Remembering what we learned about neuroplasticity, we know that a single experience creates a new neural pathway in the brain. When that channel is seen as negative, we end up with PTSD; when it's seen as positive, we end up with PTG.
We know that a single negative experience in our work life can set up a negative pathway that lasts (all it can take is one manager, early in your career, telling you that you'll "never rise to a senior leadership position" to change your career aspirations forever). But if that's true, can a single positive experience in our work life have a similar outcome? Can it create a channel that will permanently increase our well-being and a positive response to challenges? The answer is yes. Sure, it depends on the experience - but it also depends on what we do with it.
Reinforce positive experiences
When something bad happens at work - someone yells at you, you make a mess of a presentation in front of the whole team, etc. - we tend to replay it in our heads over and over again, which of course reinforces the negative pathways the experience created. But when was the last time you replayed a positive experience over and over again?
Many of us are taught to downplay our successes ("Don't get cocky!" or "No one likes someone who's full of themselves!"), so we tend to move on from positive experiences faster than we do from negative ones. But there's nothing to stop you from replaying a positive experience to yourself. Journaling is a fantastic way to do this: By taking the time to describe the experience to yourself and write it down, you're reinforcing the positive neural pathways that were created, and making it part of your personal narrative, which will enhance the results.
Another way to fortify positive experiences is simply to take the time to do so. In 2006, scientists demonstrated that rats who were given time to rest and 'hang out' ended up learning a maze faster than rats who were simply forced to repeat the (unsuccessful) attempts over and over again. As humans, giving ourselves sufficient downtime is critical both to the creative process and to allowing us to fortify our positive neural pathways.
Affect and change management
How does all of this relate to change management? Well, we can deny the existence of emotions in the workplace all we want, but the truth is that when change happens, it always generates emotions in the individuals required to carry out and live with that change. If we can acknowledge the negative emotions, we can do a better job of managing their consequences. More importantly, if we can harness the positive emotions, we can use them as powerful tools to create real and lasting change that delivers the results we want.
Next time, we'll talk about the B in the ABCs of change: Behavior.
5 Most Popular Posts of 2013 (so far)
Well, it's almost the end of June, which means we're already halfway through 2013. It's always hard to believe how quickly the months go past, and I think it's a good idea to make time to take stock.
With that in mind, here are our 5 most popular blog posts of 2013 so far.
1. 5 Easy Ways to Lose Top Talent During a Change
Going through a change initiative can leave even top performers feeling spooked and looking up the names of recruiters. Here are 5 ways you can almost guarantee your top talent will leave you instead of sticking it out.
2. Change Challenge: A long-term employee refuses to change
What do you do when a long-term, highly-valued employee just won't get on board with changes that are designed to move the company forward?
3. Change Leadership: A tale of two departments
When one department does a great job of adapting to a change initiative, but the other doesn't, the answer probably lies in the different leadership of the two departments.
4. Do 'Empathy' and 'Business Results' Really Go Together? Yes.
The truth is, ignoring the emotions that happen as a result of a change in the workplace will end up costing more than acknowledging them.
5. Change Management: The Zombie Apocalypse
IT may have tried to kill change management, but it's not dead yet.
Positive Psychology, Change and the Bottom Line, Part IV: Implications for Organizations
In our previous posts on Positive Psychology, we've talked about what positive psychology really is, how neuroplasticity affects the way we learn, and about the essential factors in creating the motivation to change.
Today we're going to look at the impliations of all this on organizations.
Individuals and organizations
In many respects, organizations ask themselves the same change-related questions that individuals do: What is my motivation for change? Do I really want to change? Does my interest in changing outweigh the perceived effort required to change?
However, these questions are asked both by the organization and by each individual affected by whatever change is being introduced. If the organization says "We want to become a more nimble organization," this has implications both for the organization as a whole and for each individual involved in the change.
Remember, if the subconscious doesn't agree wtih the change, it won't happen. In organizations, the 'subconscious' can be seen as individual employees. So if the organization says that becoming more 'nimble' means 'hiring more temps who we can fire at will', the organization risks alienating existing employees, who start to feel that the organization no longer values a commitment to the organization. That doesn't mean this change won't work - it just means that management needs to speak openly about the reasons for these temps and how the process will work.
Motivation for organizations
As we discussed earlier, motivation to change requires that the desire to change is greater than the perceived effort required to make that change. Without sufficient passion, change is difficult even when it doesn't require a whole lot of effort: "They tell me that spending 15 minutes changing my settings on this CRM system will do something, but I dunno...I've kind of gotten used to it now."
At the same time, when the perceived effort is too large, it can be hard to generate sufficient passion to make it seem worthwhile: "I know the existing CRM system isn't perfect, but now I have to sign up for a 5-day course to learn the new system! Ugh. Don't they know I have work to do?"
In both cases, senior leadership has good reasons for wanting the change - a more efficient CRM system means better sales processing, better customer service, and ultimately a more productive sales cycle - but in neither case have they communicated these reasons effectively. The result is that while the organization may be motivated to change, the organization's subconscious - the individuals involved - isn't. Which means that the change won't happen, or won't happen effectively.
Emotions of any kind are a big part of change. They're often disregarded in favor of a focus on the technical aspects of change - the training, the processes, the expectations - but it's important to remember that building positive emotions will provide the momentum to move the change forward, while negative emotions (or a lack of emotional engagement) will have the opposite effect. The only way to effect change within an organization is to leverage the ABCs of positive psychology: Affect (emotions), behavior and cognition.
Next time, we'll delve into these ABCs.
NEXT: Part V - The ABCs of Positive Psychology
Change management consultants: "You're too expensive!"
Last week I got a call from a colleague: "Well, it's happened again," she sighed. "My prospective client just spent $2.5 million on a new accounting system to unite their global operations, but they told me that my $50,000 change management strategy - to make sure the system is implemented effectively - is too expensive."
If you're reading this, you've probably experienced the same thing, either as a consultant or as a change leader within an organization. You watch senior leadership spend millions on a great idea - and then watch as that idea fails to launch because someone thought the implementation of that idea suddenly seemed 'too expensive'.
But here's the thing: Change handled badly costs more money - because it's never over.
The problem is that the cost of badly-managed change is never properly quantified. When a good idea goes wrong, there is never any shortage of excuses: "The market wasn't ready," or "The marketing strategy wasn't effective," or "The technology never worked properly." But rarely does anyone - well, outside of the change management consultants, who by that time aren't in the room - suggest that maybe the problem was simply that the change process wasn't managed by a professional.
Change Architecture, or Change Management, isn't sexy. Neither is your electric bill. But, like electricity, change management makes good economic sense because it enables other stuff to get done. Here's how change management delivers value:
- Clarity about the change. The kind of clarity that means people spend less time asking each other what they think the change means and more time working on their projects and deliverables
- Clarity about the direction. So the organization's top performers don't put 'update my resume and call a recruiter' at the top of their to-do list, instead of the tasks they're paid to do
- A communication plan with clearly articulated goals. So leaders and employees spend less time interpreting what the change is about and what it means, and more time actually working toward the business goals the change is designed to help achieve
- Change focus. One of the biggest risks for big change is a loss of focus - which can mean serious and steep declines in the bottom line. Without an independent change expert to keep the organization on track, an otherwise-great initiative can become derailed because no one is keeping their eye on the ball
- Tactical monitoring. I've written before that it's important for employees - not external consultants - to own the change management process, but bringing in a third-party change management expert to oversee the tactical implementation of a change will mean that fewer balls get dropped
You think you can't afford a change management consultant? In my opinion, you can't afford not to hire one. Without a change management expert, you'll end up spending more money than you planned, without getting the results you wanted - and you won't know how it happened.