Leading Successful Change ... getting your head around it

Marie de Guzman, Applied Neuroscientist 22 September 2011

“Change is the only constant” Heraclitus, Greek philosopher (535 BC – 475 BC)

56% Economist Intelligence Unit Survey, 2011

Yet Innate

Agility

Q.

Q.

For you, what is the most important driver for successful change?

For you, what is the most significant barrier for successful change?

Change Involves People

“Organisational change is made up of changes in individuals. If you have enough critical mass in individual changes, organisational change will come… organisational change can't be fully affected unless individuals change… otherwise you may have done it for nothing.” S.V.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Abraham Lincoln

Time Up Front

“Communication is the part that takes the most time. When you invest more before the change, then life after the change is easier…. involve people earlier to plan the change, not so that you give all the solutions and all the structures, but to give people the possibility to give their input and to possibly have the influence on the result of change. If it’s a big change [then] 6 months.” J.T.

Connections

Our brains are made up of billions of specialised information processing cells called neurons. Neurons use electrical and chemical signals to communicate and connect with one another.

Changing Connections

Changes in our brains take place in the connections between neurons.

Our brains can strengthen existing connections or create new ones.

This is known as ‘plasticity.’

Image Source: Alavi, A and Reivich, M. (2002) in Trends for Cognitive Sciences (2010), vol. 14, No. 4 p. 181

Energy

‘Change Blindness’

“If a leader focuses too much on the operational, their heads are down… they will miss out on the most important areas.” A.A.

Dopamine

Prediction for Adaptation

Bromberg-Martin, Matsumoto, Hikosaka, Neuron, 2010, no. 68 p. 816

Better than predicted

Worse than predicted

Motivate future

actions (Approach)

Update: Reinforce previous actions

Suppress future

actions (Avoid)

Update: Punish previous actions

Like Dislike baseline

baseline

Next time: As Predicted No change to

future action

Predictions

remain

Neutral baseline

Dual Processing

Satpute & Lieberman, Brain Research, 2006, no. 1079 p. 86-97

Efficient Processing

System 1: ‘Implicit’ Predictive: ‘If –then’

System 2: ‘Explicit’

Creative /Problem Solving

Mismatches – ‘Prediction Errors’

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

(ACC)

Awareness is Where Change Starts

System 2: Problem

Solve

System 1: Predictive: If-Then

Two-Way Dialogue

“Even though using the same language – doesn’t always mean the same thing… best way of communicating is though dialogue – only way to check that the other side has understood you.” J.T.

“Data won’t tell you what’s going on… dialogue helps give you context and helps build relationships… dialogue is essential. What percentage of unsuccessful change is

due to poor dialogue? 100%.” D.G.

Face-to-Face

“Willingness to engage at an individual level - this is what people respect. This has to be communicated visibly by leadership rather than by email or notice boards… this has got to be face to face communications to build that trust.” D.S.

Listening vs. Telling

“If you listen to people, make it clear you can't address every single one of their concerns. At least if you document and write down their concerns, and if you find that their vents or concerns are the same around the organisation, maybe there's a point.” S.D.

‘MBWA’

“Through MBWA, I’ve discovered more - speaking to lots of people casually, informally over lunch, interviews by sections to see what they were doing – this enabled me to know all the truths and problems about group I was in.” B.G.

Beyond the Business Case

“Having empathy for individuals you are dealing with - where are they coming from; are they supportive or not? Are they scared? Are they on side? Do they understand? Do they agree but not understand? People who are good at change… it is the ability to pick up on an individual's emotional stance.” R.S.

So What?

Assess Attend Action Potential:

All or None Response Response

Patterns Through Connections

“You see certain things and trust yourself there's something… practice, trust which has come through later years… no magic formula other than picking up [signals] in environment …somehow image emerges, [almost] mystical… but nothing more than right connections being made… it's intense moments of things connecting - you literally see it.” H.E.

Patterns Through Connections

“What change is all about is making new connections. This happens through discussion and exploring new areas which can be from insights by having conversation with others, rather than internally processing yourself. … through curiosity, reading, asking how does that apply to me, engaging with other people looking at their perspectives… and take it on board.” D.S.

Responses

System 2: Problem Solve

‘Tweak’

System 1: •Errors continue until accurate •Update predictions

Errors Are Good!

“Make the best prediction you can, observe actual events and if your prediction was wrong update your knowledge-base so that future predictions are more accurate.”

Y. Niv & G. Schoenbaum, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2008, Vol. 12, No. 7

Load the Dice

Mastering Agility

“Need to stay aware that the next change will come sometime, so need to stay alive and listen to walls & people…need to change something sometime - so awareness is important. Don't fall asleep because processes going nicely - make sure you stay alive in industry. Listen to people and be open; no change is forever.” B.G.

Stop?

Keep?

Start?

Change takes energy….

…drive gives energy

Are you a successful change leader?

Contact us to participate in our ongoing research:

Email: marie@themangrove.org.uk

Tel: 020 3093 7539 / 07966096218

Web: www.themangrove.org.uk