Now for something completely different - brain science. You may have seen some of the images of the brain where scientists trace the energy coursing through it. Experiments have been done on patients put in unfamiliar situations. In these situations, these energy traces show that the pre-frontal cortex at the front of the brain lights up. The pre-frontal cortex is equivalent to brain RAM. The pre-frontal cortex is agile, but can only deal with a handful of concepts at one time. When it bumps against its limits, it generates a palpable sense of discomfort, leading to fatigue and sometimes anger. In fact, the pre-frontal cortex is linked to our primitive emotional centre.
Given the choice, our brains prefer to use the lower energy basal ganglia (brain hard drive) – this controls habit-based behaviour. What the science seems to show, is that the brain has a reward mechanism when we gain insights into doing new things, in other words, transferring the workload from one of fear in the pre-frontal cortex, to one of mastery in the basal ganglia.
8 ‘Leading change’ John Kotter, Harvard Business Press 9 ‘The art of change’ John Kotter, Harvard Business Press
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Projects, programs and business change Change leadership
So why is this important in business change leadership. Well, it supports the theory that business change can be an emotional journey, causing extremes of behaviour in those who are affected. It also suggests, given the reward mechanism for insights, that those who are affected by the change need to be empowered to work through the implications of new change. In other words, the role of the change leader is to provide the framework so that the users can master their own destiny, coming to terms with new change.
There is a model that you may have seen before, called the DREC curve. It explains the different phases of emotion that people go through when confronting major change. The acronym stands for:
1. Denial 2. Resistance 3. Exploration 4. Commitment
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Projects, programs and business change Change leadership
Figure 9
Phase one is our “Ordinary world”, in other words, the world we are living in today. Suddenly, a new change programme is approved and the journey begins. If those who are directly affected by the change are not ready or prepared, a number of emotions will come to the surface. The first of these emotions is denial. Users tell themselves “I can’t believe they will really do this.” Then as things progress, denial may turn to anger. “This is absolutely the wrong thing for us to be doing. It could severely damage our business.”
Emotions may build, as the project moves on often with a bargaining phase. “Why don’t we start with the other region first?” Finally, they may move on to pessimism and despair, asking themselves, “I don’t see how this will ever work.”
We come to the bottom of the curve. If the project is going to fail, chances are, it will fail here. If we can get past this stage and move to phase 3, then we have a chance of being successful. The project starts to deliver some early results and those affected may get involved with verifying them (remember what we said previously about delivering step by step). Users may even recognize some value in what is being done. This cautious optimism builds, through hopeful realism and even acceptance.
As the project nears completion, there is an informed optimism. Those who have been involved through the change journey are now emerging on the other side. The theory of brain science says they will feel a sense of great satisfaction and achievement.
Projects, programs and business change Change leadership
To summarize
• Changing the way we do things will often bring about an emotional reaction
• Large business change may bring about large emotional reactions
• As change leaders, we need to recognize the emotional journey, and help others to work through it
When you are embarking on a new change programme, think about how it would play out as a script.
What would be the denials and the resistance to the programme? What sorts of obstacles would you need to overcome? What would the new ‘ordinary world’ look like? Thinking through a change journey as a film narrative can often be a good way to identify and hopefully address change issues early.