Human Nature eats Transformation Projects for Breakfast

There are few things that promise more and deliver less than a “Transformation Project”.

They all start off with lofty goals, sound reasoning, executive sponsorship and some sort of fancy launch event.

They will no doubt have been preceded by months (if not years) of careful planning. It may even have had input from a high-profile and hilariously expensive consulting firm.

What could possibly go wrong?

Habits! ?That’s what goes wrong.

Or more specifically the inability to change the habits that are ingrained.

We are all of us creatures of habit.

I’m frequently asked why it is so difficult to change the way that people behave, so allow me to share with you a few powerful human biases/heuristics that see us all clutching to our formed habits like a child to a favourite cuddly toy.

Here's my top 3:

1. Status Quo Bias: We like things to stay the same.

Do you remember going to your place of work for the very first time?

Do I drive? Catch the train? Bus maybe? Where do I park? Which station? What do I wear? What time do I get up? Where’s the building?

I’ll be willing to bet that you still follow that exact same route and routine today.

Decision making is hard. We burn cognitive resources making choices and so to conserve energy, once we’ve expended the energy to weigh up the options and decide, we tend to stick to that as a default.

It can take quite a jolt to shake us loose from our established norms. Even to consider something fresh is hard work.

2. Sunk Cost Bias: We cling to our investments.

Imagine that you’ve BOUGHT expensive tickets to see a concert. It’s an artist that you really like. The show is tonight but you are really sick. Headache, fever, shivers and sweats.

What do you do?

Take some cold & flu meds and push through or stay home?

Now imagine that you were GIVEN the tickets to see the concert. Same scenario. What do you do this time?

I have a vision of you at home in your pyjamas with a box of tissues.

The only thing that changed was whether you bought the tickets or were given them.

That’s sunk cost bias at work. Evolutionary psychology has seen to it that when we have invested into some endeavour, we don’t give up on it too easily. We persevere, struggle, push on.

When someone has invested their time into doing something a certain way, has built a reputation and a career out of that practice.

That is something that is very hard to give up on.

3. Defensive Decision Making: We avoid potentially catastrophic choices.

I’ve heard this referred to as “The Heathrow Option”.

You need to book your boss a flight from London to New York. British airways operate a regular service from both Heathrow (the UK’s major international airport) and London City Airport.

Although London City is often the better option, you still book your boss on the flight from Heathrow.

Why is this?

Although London City often might be better. It is also a non-standard option.

If your boss’s flight from Heathrow is delayed, it’s the fault of British Airways.

If their flight from London City is delayed, it’s your fault for making the booking from a second-rate airport.

In the corporate world, if we do things as they have always been done and something goes wrong, we are seen as unlucky. If we do something differently and things go wrong, then we are seen as a fool, we get blamed and fired.

The defensive decision is the safe decision.

You may have noticed that my title for this short article unashamedly borrowed from the great Peter Drucker who famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.

In saying this he quite correctly implied that the culture of an organisation determines its success regardless of how smart and well-reasoned your strategy and plans might be.

In the end its always all about the people.

Human understanding = better results.

Every time.