Conditions For Successful Change

By Catherine Palin-Brinkworth CSP, MAppSci
© 2005 Catherine Palin-Brinkworth.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by Remacue with permission

A few years ago I was given a useful definition of insanity: “Doing what you did yesterday and expecting a different outcome.”

Uh huh. I agree – it’s crazy! Yet how many of us want improved lives and enhanced performance – without the will to change?

Every single desirable development of our lives will require change. The C word. Why on earth do we resist it so? Well.......

1. It hurts. Yes, it does. There is an inbuilt part of my brain, and yours, which is absolutely dedicated to preserving homeostasis. Anything different (particularly exercise, in my opinion) causes severe discomfort – and so it should. This clever reptilian brain of ours is just trying to protect us from imbalance. It hasn’t realized we’re in the 21st century and if we DON’T change we’ll die.

2. It’s somebody else’s idea. Well, that’s usually true! Most other people seem to feel they know what’s good for us, better than we do, right? So almost all change or improvement initiatives are initially inspired by an external source. The question is – do we share the same desire for us to be different?

3. On the other hand, maybe if I do change, other people in my life might become uncomfortable. Because they know me as I am, and they are resisting change, so if I embrace it, I may not be able to embrace them any more. Or they may not embrace me. That could be very lonely.

4. It actually shakes my self-concept to the core. I form my identity, my worldview, my core belief system which drives all my responses behaviours and actions, quite early in my life. It creates my orientation. If anything happens to alter that orientation, I become a displaced person. Even if it’s only momentary, it requires an adjustment on my part. That’s hard work. If I have to do it too often, I can become quite disoriented and dysfunctional. After all, how can I possibly perform at my peak if I don’t know who I am?

5. I like things just the way they are. Well, maybe they’re not perfect. But they’re OK. And if we change things, they could be worse! Better the devil you know........

Take a moment to check in with me on this.

• Have you ever wanted conditions in your life/work/family to change?
• Have you ever owned any of the above resistances?
• Have you ever observed them in others around you?

They’re common. They’re almost universal. They will get in the way of just about every improvement you want to implement in your business environment or in your personal life.

What do you need to do to manage them?

It’s simple. Use the BEST© Change Formula:

• Build the vision. Get it strong, big, bright, clear, moving, real. Discuss all the positive effects. Accept the challenges and obstacles. Know the value.

• Ensure there is 100% ownership and support. Establish the power. None of us is a powerless victim of our world. We can stay and grow, or we can run and hide. We can choose to make a difference and we can choose to be different. Own accountability and response-ability.

• Select an action. All change requires effort. One action alone can get it started. Any action is better than none. All action provides feedback. The whole process may not always be clear – and probably can’t be. No-one needs to know all the answers in advance.

• Take a step. With personal courage, acknowledging any risk and ensuring there’s a safety net provided. Providing self-encouragement. Every step takes us somewhere. Check the results with the vision.

And the next step is of course to keep building the vision. It never stops.

And here’s a final challenge in creating change, but arguably the most important to take on. Check out the beliefs of everyone involved. Robert Fritz, author of ‘The Path of Least Resistance’, shows graphically how a negative belief will inevitably sabotage any attempt to move out of the current situation. The resulting Structural Conflict will make any improvement impossible. You may not be able to overcome those negative beliefs, but even acknowledging the beliefs, respectfully, and using the fear positively and productively to put risk management strategies in place, will be very useful. Without that awareness, without open empathetic acknowledgement of negativity you have no chance to shape a managing strategy. Fritz describes the healthy approach as ‘Structural Tension’. Knowing the barriers exist, but having a managing strategy for them, allows you to focus more on the vision, and your own capacity to achieve it.

Success strategies are simple. You know what you want. You believe you can have it. You work out how to get it. You take action. You know with confidence that you will have it – and it arrives.

We do it every day – and love it! So why do we sometimes make it so difficult?

Catherine Palin-Brinkworth presents powerful business and personal success strategies. She is also a Director of Progress Training Systems – with a proven track record in building sales, service and leadership skills. Call her on (07) 5528 5255 or visit www.catherineplainbrinkworth.com