Importantly, change needs to be engineered in a way that does not exhaust people. The self-control involved in many changes requires effort and exhausts people. When people are exhausted they are less able to be creative, positive, resilient or seek solutions to problems that inevitably arise. Changing things often involves replacing or adding to behaviours that have become automatic which requires little mental energy being with behaviours that require careful supervision by the Rider (at least initially) and therefore high mental energy. As a result, there needs to be crystal clear direction, without which the riders in us will stall and spin and not necessarily get where we are trying to go, as well as hope, a sense of achievability and regular celebration of achievement to keep the Elephant motivated. Finally, what often appears a people problem is actually a situation problem - instead of trying to change people, change the environment or the situation (much easier) and people will follow, making the path of least resistance also the path that leads to change. This forms the basis of their three part framework (see below), which my next blog posts will explore in more detail.
I recently read Switch: how to change things when change is hard by Dan and Chip Heath, which is about creating and managing change and decision-making. They begin by boiling the concept of change down to the fact that for anything to change, someone has to start acting differently. While change is commonly perceived as difficult, in reality we all regularly seek and embrace change in many areas of our lives - seeking new jobs, having babies, moving house or countries, embracing new technology. The Heaths put this schizophrenic attitude to change down to there being two parts of the brain - the rational and emotional side (the Rider and the Elephant as they call them) and often these are not aligned. For successful and sustainable change to take place both the rider (the rational side) and the elephant (the emotional side) have to be simultaneously engaged in a complementary way.
Importantly, change needs to be engineered in a way that does not exhaust people. The self-control involved in many changes requires effort and exhausts people. When people are exhausted they are less able to be creative, positive, resilient or seek solutions to problems that inevitably arise. Changing things often involves replacing or adding to behaviours that have become automatic which requires little mental energy being with behaviours that require careful supervision by the Rider (at least initially) and therefore high mental energy. As a result, there needs to be crystal clear direction, without which the riders in us will stall and spin and not necessarily get where we are trying to go, as well as hope, a sense of achievability and regular celebration of achievement to keep the Elephant motivated. Finally, what often appears a people problem is actually a situation problem - instead of trying to change people, change the environment or the situation (much easier) and people will follow, making the path of least resistance also the path that leads to change. This forms the basis of their three part framework (see below), which my next blog posts will explore in more detail.
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AuthorI'm an educator driven by the desire to see people realise their potential by gaining the tools they need to be successful. I love being part of a community of learners for whom there is always more to be known and understood. For me, learning and teaching is cognitive, social and emotional and takes the whole self. Archives
July 2015
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