Avoiding change – is all in the mind?
A manager who had completed JOLT Challenge was intrigued about the concept of Pattern Disruption, namely disrupting the brain’s natural tendency to embed thought, emotional, behavioural and environmental patterns. He decided to test the concept by changing the seating layout of the company cafeteria. It was a small change which he thought would have a minor impact on his employees. Throughout the morning following the new seating arrangements, the office was full of negativity about the change. His staff did not know how to respond to this sudden shift in their well established routine and their frustration built up to such a state that by lunchtime one employee took it upon themself to return the seating arrangements to its original layout.
Change is often associated with a great deal of difficulty. Organisations and managers tend to face inherent resistance from their employees with remarks like “That’s not the way we do things around here” or “It’s just not going to work” and my personal favourite “I just don’t want to”. Resistance to change can also take place on a day to day basis from the time you flat out refused to talk in public, dance at that wedding or when you found yourself hating the new Facebook layout. Why do so many of us avoid change? Could it be that it’s all in our mind? That we are actually biologically wired to react negatively to change?
Our brain is in fact designed for structure. When we know certain things like where our monthly income will come from, who our parents are and even which route we take to work each day will always remain the same we are able to feel a sense of security and comfort in our life. The need for structure and stability is especially important during this modern fast paced society where everything is constantly changing. When change does occur our brain reacts, specifically the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of your brain. It is the more conscious part of your brain, and it is also the more energy intensive section which allows us to process new things. It is like random access memory (RAM) in a computer. It is fast and agile and able to process new ideas and perceptions quickly but like RAM, it has a limit to the amount of information it can hold at any one time. To free up space, any task that is performed regularly is reallocated into another part of the brain called the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia is similar to your computer’s hard drive and is the part of your brain that focuses on habitual or routine tasks that structure our daily life. It requires less energy than the prefrontal cortex and is able to work exceedingly well without the need for conscious thought. For example, every morning you go for a run along the same path and you find the morning air crisp and the quietness invigorating. After a period of time you may find that your morning run has become more of a routine and your actions are automatic, you don’t have to think. This is your basal ganglia at work. One day, your friend invites you for a run during lunch; there is more traffic and people around than in the morning, the air is filled with smog and loud chaotic noises. You find yourself having to concentrate a lot more to avoid all the distractions and the simple activity of running suddenly becomes much more challenging. There is a lot of effort being required from the prefrontal cortex as it works towards changing a comfortably familiar pattern and this can often lead to feelings of unpleasantness and distress. 
In order to avoid this feeling, you might find yourself refusing to run unless it is during your regular morning time. The same scenario applies in the workforce during strategic or organizational change. Many aspects of how an employee manages their job is unconscious ie how they organize their day, run a meeting, even down to where they sit in the company cafeteria at lunch time can also be attributed to a well structured routine run by the basal ganglia.
The actions of the prefrontal cortex are often likened to the behavior of a disobedient 2 year old child. When told to do something, the first reaction is to resist. To break through this defense, an enthusiastic and positive ownership over the change is required. Ever had that moment of epiphany where suddenly everything made sense? This is a breakthrough in the prefrontal cortex’s defenses when you have come to a conclusion on your own. The prefrontal cortex encourages moments like these as they are not perceived as a threat but rather as a form of positive engagement. Being told what to do or having the thinking done for us disengages the brain, and as a result it will not invest the time, effort or energy to make the new connections needed to change its behavior. Helping people generate their own moment of insight is not a simple task but it can be crucial to achieving acceptance for change. Try asking questions and focusing on the solution rather than the problem as this allows the opportunity for people to voice their own ideas. Neuroscientists have proved that arriving at the answer by ourselves invokes more activity in the brain than hearing the idea from someone else.
The prefrontal cortex is not the only contribution that the brain has towards avoiding change. There is a small area just above the eyeball called the orbital frontal cortex (see image above) and it is responsible for detecting what neuroscientists call “errors” which refers to the perceived difference between what is expected and what actually happens. When our brain expects something but it does not occur as expected, an intense activity between the neurons takes place in the orbital frontal cortex, which in turn triggers the fear circuitry in our brain stored in the amygdala. The amygdala then responds to this fear by “emotionally hijacking” our thinking resulting in highly emotional feelings and acts of impulsiveness.
There does not need to be a major change for resistance to occur. Moving the seats in the cafeteria was meant to be a tiny change but even the effort of having to form a new pattern of where to regularly sit for lunch was seen as expending too much energy from the prefrontal cortex. Employees turned up to work one day to find that their expectations for how the cafeteria was meant to look like differed from actual reality. This triggered an irrational response and turned a minor change into a high impact disruption. Something as small as changing seating layouts requires transparency and patience. It is important to be aware of the message that is being communicated during the change process. Being transparent and clear as to how the change will affect a person will help avoid “errors” from popping up in their brain. If you are unsure, simply stating that “I don’t know but I will find out” will have a far more positive effect than the result gained from false expectations.
Our brain requires structure in our life to survive, however too much routine can lead to inflexibility, narrow mindedness and less conscious thought. It is important that some patterns in our life be disrupted so that the brain is able to be flexible in its mental and physical behavior leading to personal development and/or organizational growth. In the words of Charles Darwin - “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” By introducing variety into your life you will stimulate new ideas and decisions. The reaction to the change of the seating layout is a perfect example that the manager can use when explaining to his staff the need to adapt to change. If they are unable adapt to a minor change like seating arrangements how are they able to become more effective in their business decisions when the environment around them is constantly changing? Start with adapting to low impact changes first in order to prepare yourself to deal with high impact changes when they occur.
Pattern disruption may not always be right for you but by stepping up and being open to new experiences you may find you’ll learn new things, meet interesting people and maybe have fun. The experience will allow you to make a more informed decision about whether the change feels right for you. When running during lunchtime with your colleague it is much noisier and distracting as compared to your usual morning run but you decide to give it a chance. To avoid the distraction you find yourself discovering a new route where the scenery is much more enjoyable than your original route. After awhile you reflect and decide that due to time commitments, running in the morning is actually more suitable for you than during the lunch period. However, not only have you discovered a fantastic new route that you may not have necessarily known about, you now have a new found appreciation for the peacefulness and clean air.
Recognizing that structure is vital to our life is important to understanding that resistance to change is inherent to a person’s mind. This doesn’t mean that we cannot change the way the brain performs. Various leadership tactics like self-reflection, involvement in the planning process and expectation management will help the brain deal with pattern disruption. As a result, the brain will consistently be stimulated, keeping it from getting bored and ensuring constant personal and/or organizational growth.
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