The Challenge of Change

“The biggest risk is not taking any risks. In a rapidly changing world, the only strategy that is certain to fail is to take no chances.” Mark Zukerberg

In times of crisis, change is not only necessary, it is inevitable!

For change to occur, it is necessary to change attitude, acquire a new behavior and that is where the challenge begins. But first of all it is necessary to recognize the need for change.

The biggest cause of failure to implement changes in companies is due to internal resistance.

"When someone adopts a different posture, a small part of the brain associated with the fear of rejection is activated."

Gregory Berns - Emory University

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The human brain is complex. The line between what stimulates you and what abuses you is very thin. When we think about changing jobs, house, city, partner, we feel an immediate discomfort related to our resistance to leaving (expanding) our comfort zone into the unknown.

The human brain is a social organ and its struggle to alleviate emotional distress is a battle for survival.

“How to make people change? It's not just through strategy, structure, culture or system. All this is important. But the heart of the matter involves a change in behavior, and it only happens when you speak to people's hearts.”

John P. Kotter

Research by Harvard Business School professor John Kotter has proven that great change efforts, unfortunately, do not always have the desired results. He found that there is only a 30% chance of success. This is one of the reasons why organizations implement changes unsuccessfully and fail to achieve the intended result.

Culture changes only after people's actions have been successfully changed, and after the new behavior has produced some benefit for some time, concludes the professor.

In short: we are beings who hate to lose, and giving up something that was previously considered ours generates a very negative emotional experience. In any process of change, we are forced to give up something.

How to change?

Changes are perceived quite differently when they are coupled with choices and desires. If change is something a person chooses for himself or produces an outcome he wants, he will have a totally different way of dealing with it.

Even if it's something difficult to get used to, your brain will interpret it as a way to accomplish something good, so the person becomes much more tolerant of what is happening.

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