Rewire the mind – key for successful transformation in organization as well as life!

Company closing down due to preventable failure or death of humans due to preventable health issues attracted me to do a focused study on what really stops individual in taking decisions about change/transformation. In current era, reasons can’t be lack of information, lack of tools & methods, lack of solutions, lack of help from experts during change process, or lack of resources. I selected preventable health problem to understand reasons and compare it with reasons of preventable business “health” problems. Hence, Obesity & overweight epidemic as an example was an obvious choice to understand why it is hard for people to achieve desired result in weight management; factors that hinder the transformation and how to apply the learning to in organizational context.  

As per World health organization’s latest findings published on 16-Feb-2018 (Reference: https://www.who.int), “even though obesity as well as their related conditions / diseases are largely preventable, worldwide, 39% of adults (aged 18+ years) were overweight in 2016 and 13% adults were obese. Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal disorders and some cancers. Supportive environments and communities are fundamental in shaping people’s choices, by making the choice of healthier foods and regular physical activity the easiest choice (the choice that is the most accessible, available and affordable), and therefore preventing overweight and obesity.”

Lack of information/knowledge can’t be the reason as number of search results for keywords related to the Weight loss – 774 million, Burn Fat – 619 million, Fat Loss – 439 million, Inch Loss – 206 million, Obesity – 146 million, Bariatric Surgery – 116 million, Death due to obesity – 56.4 million, Overweight 49.1 million appeared on Internet browser, proved that lot of information/knowledge is already accessible & available in public domain. Thousands (if, not millions) of books, Video CDs, and online videos are available online/offline stores on free/on sale to understand and act. Lack of experts also can’t be the reason, because, hundreds of hospitals, clinics, NGOs, freelance professionals, Gyms, Clubs etc. offer their services to solve weight management issues across the globe. Lack of available solutions too can’t be the reason, as there are medical treatments, alternative therapies, do-it-your-self diet/exercise plans, medicines, surgery techniques, non-invasive methods of weight loss/fat loss available, accessible and are affordable (might be debatable point). Then where is the problem? The only one possible reason left now is the “individual” who has to understand the need for change, take decision & execute the action plan to achieve recommended health indicators.

Further analysis of individual revealed that the real reason might be “MIND”. It’s really amazing how an invisible organ of the human body influences success of any individual or organization. We often use the words “brain and mind” interchangeably, even though, they are separate concepts. Brain is a physical and visible organ, but the mind is invisible. The brain is the physical place where mind resides. It can be referred as a container in which the electronic impulses that create thoughts are contained for easy understanding. With brain, one coordinate moves, physical activities, connected with sensory organs and transmit-receive impulses, whereas mind is used to do thinking. Mind is the manifestation of thoughts, perception, emotions, determination, memory & imagination. Mind play an important role in thought processes of reason, the awareness of consciousness, the ability to control what we do and know & why we do. Even though mind makes humans capable to solve complex problems, how come it becomes an obstacle in a change process? Following points will help to understand why mind act in a particular way.

Mind loves to do what is familiar: Our mind is programmed to do familiar things whether its food, places, sports, activities etc., it makes us feel comfortable. Past experiences create a sense of safety in familiar things. Our mind is hardwired to feel “known devil is better than the unknown angle”. Familiarity of things or activities and their repetition breeds liking, e.g. if we go to a restaurant, out of several menu items, we tend to order more items which we like and might have consumed earlier or familiar ones.      

Mind does exactly what one thinks, pictures made in head and words spoken to self: Mind is listening our spoken words. It interprets our feelings too. It follows pictures & imagination one makes in the head. If one speaks like “morning exercise routine is exhausting”, “diet restrictions are really tough for me”, “I don’t have time for going to Gym or doing exercise”, “My work, my career & my family is top priority”, “Waking up early in the morning is nightmare” etc. mind will exactly interpret what you wanted to do. These words & pictures will influence future actions. At that time, decisions related to change of lifestyle will be difficult to take.   

Mind protects self by avoiding re-occurrence of negative experience: Our life is filled with series of positive and negative experiences. We go through all. However, negative experiences leave the deepest impression on us. Previous negative experience (even though it might be due to a mistake or due to enough information about it) impacts current choices, e.g. if someone started a decision to do daily workout, if person experienced body pain in initial days, this negative experience of pain avoid person to do similar workout in future.

Mind loves to move towards pleasure and move away from pain: All decisions made by a person can be categorized in to two categories, either to “avoid pains”, or to “gain pleasure”. When it comes to motivation, why people do the things that they do, it comes down the simple science of pain versus pleasure. I got exposed to this theory vary late in life. I suggest, this fundamental theory should be taught to all children at young age. Avoiding immediate pain becomes much more motivating than gaining immediate pleasure. It’s the perception of pain and pleasure, not actual pain and pleasure that drives the decision. Since, we don’t really know for sure what the future will hold, our mind constantly make assumptions and judgments about the future. Perceptions are very flawed, when it comes to things that are bit more complex. It is also linked with time frame; pain tomorrow is not as powerful factor as pain today and pain after twenty years is absolutely far less demotivating than pain in next week. I am sure you must have got the answer of your question “What people chose out of two options (1) take insurance policies, save money and delay spending or (2) Sped money now. Short term always wins over long term unless there is a substantial amount of pain or pleasure associated with the long term avoidance of pain or pleasure involved. What wins “emotions” or “logic”? Pain or pleasure related to emotions is hard-wired & stronger, that tells us to act now instead of think ahead to the future. For example, if, one is offered cake with cream, will brain think about eating & enjoying it now or think from perspective of survival that eating it means a diseases or death in future?

Mind seek people like us in team to avoid change: Any new information, thoughts or activities that can challenge our knowledge or wisdom bothers brain; hence, we tend to find people around us who are of the same opinion or reinforce our beliefs - irrespective of whether they are right or wrong. If no one in the group challenges status-quo, we are unlikely to start change process.

Mind considers entire time, money & efforts as loss, if not successful to achieve 100% target: Sometimes change involves a significant time or money or other resources and all change efforts may not yield results. In such situations, because our brain hates loss, brain likes to see the entire time or entire resources as loss rather than just a part of it. If someone joins weight loss program and if a targeted results are not achieved, mind consider it loss of a complete year time as well as money, but in reality it’s not complete loss, may be 70% of target might be achieved.    

Solution: Learning from above points can be applied in organizational change programs too. As decision makers, leaders, managers and change agents are also human beings and their individual mind as well as collective mind also play role in deciding about change or transformation for better results. In spite of a clear need to reduce cost or to design a new product or develop a new strategy or training programs or solving functional or interpersonal problems decision makers procrastinate transformation or change programs, that results in to bankruptcy, loss of market share, financial loss, loss of customers etc. I met several organization leaders during last 10 years, who had said "yes, our organization should change", but either new change programs were delayed or stopped allocating resources to existing change projects.  

There is no magic one solution fits for all. Awareness about Mind can be the best first step one can take. Change of vision, change of words, change of pictures in mind, change of thinking, change of goals will certainly help. Use this knowledge about behavior of your own mind to your advantage. Think about what works for you. Knowing about mind is focused on this moment, better to come up with ways of making future pleasure even at the cost of present pain due to change. Alternatively, come up with ways of making future pain seems more real now, if change program will not started. Obesity can also be prevented and organizations can also achieve better growth, more market share, more turnover, more profit and serve the country better through implementation of right change programs under right change champions. 

Rewire the mind! It works.

Ketan R. Gandhi 19-Jul-2018