Change – The Approach & the Reaction

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”   – Max Planck

Emotion may be the catalyst for change BUT if you FAIL to be aware of the potential change-back-reaction and respond effectively, you’ll be in constant reaction mode.

In the related podcast, I share a story about how to bring about change with a subtle approach. I call this approach the Planck Effect. The newsletter focuses on an experience I had with a client in the last 5 months who was intent on navigating a meaningful change based on some conflicting feedback from key stakeholders in his business. Furthermore, the Wednesday (January 23rd) video that I posted on LinkedIn and Instagram simply references the two core points I want to put forward about change this week. These core points are also outlined within this post.

Approaching Change

The approach you choose to use to make change a reality is key to actually achieving your desired outcome. For example, when you use undue force to bring about change, the blow-back may be more subtle while the destination you are seeking, more elusive. The energy in the approach must match the circumstances, much like the graph I shared last week that speaks to diminishing returns when emotions are overly stimulated.

Below, I review what I call the Planck-Effect Approach in more detail. It is the approach I describe in the story in this week’s podcast episode. It’s one of the more subtle approaches to influencing change. Additionally, in the second section below, I share a few other options along the spectrum of approaches you may want to consider. When I say approach please remember the methodology employed may be the same even when the approach changes or vice versa.

The Planck-Effect Approach

We learn from physicists like Max Planck that by simply becoming an observer of activity or behaviour you will change the behaviour. Neuro-scientists have found the same thing. Where your attention is placed will change the way the neural transmitters in your brain will connect and collaborate. This is the basis of this approach to change. It may take more time than blunter instruments for change but even the gradual change, depending on where you are starting, can be noticeable relatively quickly. The real benefit is the limited anxiety it creates and therefore the reduced reaction.

Using this approach is a three step process:

1. Identify what you want to influence or where you want to see change.
2. Establish a meaningful observation point. Be prepared to adjust this point as you learn more.
3. Process and Assess your findings to maximize the learning and sustainability of the desired and realized change.

The Planck-Effect in Practice

It may help to walk you through these three steps as they were illustrated in the podcast episode.

1. The change I wanted was a reduction in the level of spending in a particularly category, while maintaining the needs of the program. I was open to confirming that the spending was necessary but my instinct when, as the new CEO for the business, I reviewed the monthly and annual trends, suggested it simply required attention.
2. In this case, I decided I needed to observe from a significant distance. Both because in the long term I needed to rely on others to carryout the lessons learned and I needed to focus the bulk of my time on other critical priorities. I let the manager in charge know of my interest and asked him to teach me about this one category and how decisions were made. I intentionally spread out the learning to influence his thinking while managing my time.
3. While at each mini-lesson I’d use inquiry to assess the impact myself while also encouraging his expanded thinking, I found opportunities to incorporate the lessons into broader but related discussions with my leadership team. At this stage of the process I also acknowledged and recognized the contribution of the involved manager inspiring him to bring a similar approach to other aspects of his job which ultimately expanded his engagement in the business overall.

Choosing An Approach

The podcast story, also outlined above, is an example of a subtle, softer approach to change. A subtle approach is powerful because many times when employed, change happens without people even realizing it is. That does not mean there’s no need to prepare for a change-back reaction. Moreover, this approach is not always the desirable or the most effective approach. There are times when a more dramatic, firm or straightforward approach is necessary.

These questions may assist you in determining the approach that fits best:Do you know exactly what the problem is and are you clear on what the desired outcome looks like?

1. Have you designed a clear path or bridge to move you from your current to your desired state?
2. Is the change you seek a process change or a behavioural change?
3. Is there an inspiring narrative that describes the need for change that will appeal to most who will be impacted?
4. What degree of buy-in do you already have for your desired change?

An indirect, open approach on the subtle end will work best in situations where you are less clear about the exact problem you are solving or the best outcome. When you use a blunter instrument you will want to be VERY clear, even if not specific, about the desired outcome.

Specific Approaches

From indirect to blunt:

1. Inquiry and observation (The Planck-effect)
2. Environmental Scans
3. Project Management (where you develop a change team and deploy one of the change models)
4. Movement or Aspirational
5. Establish, teach and engage guidelines or principles (likely contains a training component) This could move up the list if it contains a co-creation element.
6. Legislation or Regulation (in workplaces this is a hard and fast set of rules or policies that outline consequences) and the change plan may contain an extreme enforcement component.

Change-Back Reaction

While the reaction may be more dramatic when the approach is more direct, the methods you use in deploying your change plan will

have an impact as well. While that is not the emphasis in this post there are many methods you can adopt once you choose your intended approach. Be sure the methodology you employ considers and is actively anticipating the reaction.

Forms of Reaction

First, become really clear about why people push you back to old ways. For you to lead or navigate change effectively you must appreciate and embrace the related emotions. Now I suspect it’s making sense that I placed a theme of emotions between choice and change in the flow this month. The reaction is an expression of anxiety. Simply ignoring anxiety will simply expand its impact. Overreacting to the anxiety could derail your plans. Anxiety is coming out of feelings of threat so at a high level this comes out of the limbic system and is triggered by the primitive brain where we’ve perfected fight, flight and freeze responses.

As you embark on change for yourself, your community, organization or team remember you can reduce the negative reactions with a systematic plan. First, it may help to outline the most common forms the change-back reaction takes:

1. Impaired Reasoning Abilities or Fuzzy Thinking. The human brain when forced to confront imposed change is overwhelmed and will feel scrambled and produce negative reactions.
2. Defensiveness. The hands may literally or figuratively go up both in self-protection OR retreat, in a defensive, despairing way.
3. Blaming, Finger-pointing, Anti-Social Behaviour. At first glance this may appear identical to #2 but it may show up more aggressively.
4. Regression. You’ll see this primarily on teams or in relationships where there has been plenty of progress in trust, respect and openness and poorly managed change can cause significant loss in progress made.

Additionally, it may show up personally in poor choices and even self-defeating behaviours.

How to Prepare and Respond

Knowing that anxiety is the source of the change-back reaction, the solution almost writes itself. Before I list them, remember that you are part of many groups and systems that have invested in you. When you want change, it threatens the comfort zone. Moreover, the threat is experienced both internally (your inner critic) and externally (your family, friends, co-workers and such). This resistance to change, just like the will to change, is a natural aspect of all human systems.

That said, here are 3 considerations as you plan for a change-back reaction:

1. Engage people. (That includes your Inner Critic) The more people are part of the solution or change, even in small ways, the more they will support you through the process.
2. Acknowledge people. By acknowledging people for their part in building the systems, even as you are changing them, their feelings of threat, during the change process, are diminished. At the same time, when new contributors feel valued for their efforts they are more likely to be champions for the change.
3. Status Updates. Keep people in the loop. A great example of this is when you are on the tarmac in an airplane. Have you noticed that when you are frequently kept informed of schedule changes, the level of anxiety is significantly reduced? That same principle supports every change initiative.

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