Resistance to Change/Patterned Responses

Who would have thought that one of my MBA courses would correlate to weight loss?! But lo and behold, like many things in life, lessons learned in one area of life can transfer to other areas.

This particular business class was covering the topic of performing periodic audits within a company to evaluate strengths, weaknesses and any areas needing improvement. Sounds reasonable and intuitive, right? But just like how driving a four-wheel drive SUV in the winter can give you a false sense of security, so, too, can audits. Dr. Barry Eisenberg, assistant professor in the MBA program at Empire State College, was quick to point out that audits, or evaluations, aren't enough. Even changing your mindset to embrace what an audit reveals, isn't enough! Hang on...

Get where I'm going yet?

Many of you are embarking on New Year's resolutions. You've evaluated whatever "health" or "fitness" weaknesses you may have in your life, you've pinpointed areas that need improvement... and you might be feeling really good that you've realized these things about your fitness.

I've always said that the weight-loss battle, or ANY battle in life, begins in the mind. Truly! But let's take this a step further. The following will take some processing - but once you get it, it can be life changing! The long and short of it is that while making a fitness commitment might feel good and have you pumped up with enthusiasm, if the change is ONLY attitudinal, without behavioral change to back it up, then you're maintaining the status quo in your life - keeping to what you know and what is comfortable. No true change can occur in this case. Here are words of wisdom from Professor Eisenberg (emphasis mine):

It’s easy to say that we resist change. We all know that. But we should not underestimate the degree to which this is true. We tend to accept or pursue change when the perception of the reward exceeds the perception of the effort that goes into achieving it. But systems theory (and for those interested, the second law of thermodynamics) posits that systems – groups, organizations – and people bend back toward the mean, that is, they seek homeostasis. That is one explanation for why we tend to repeat behavior when it appears ill-advised or when it produces the same results, notwithstanding how dissatisfying or frustrating those results may be.

(Prof. Eisenberg goes on to discuss organizations and their tendency to want stability by remaining the same):

But stability is a powerful human and organizational force. You have been discussing ways of resisting that force in order to engage yourselves in ongoing audits. The tools and awareness this program will provide will fortify your capability to achieve that objective. But so too will an awareness of how easily trapped we become by our patterned responses and how our organizations are motivated by the natural tendency to maintain things as they are.

(Prof. Eisenberg then discusses a hospital that tried to initiate changes according to JCAHO requirements)....

The point is that the hospital believed it conducted an audit and made the necessary changes. Rather, what really occurred is that they absorbed relatively minor changes into their existing structure, culture, and set of rules. Could we say they deluded themselves into believing they made change?

(OKAY WAKE UP - THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH SHOULD GRAB YOU!)

It’s not unusual for us to believe we are making change…and we even convince ourselves of it, when, in fact, change on the required order of magnitude has not occurred. Consider the smoker who declares he is quitting the habit. Once such a declaration has occurred, the person may come to believe that he has engaged in change. That is, the declaration itself is believed to constitute some measure of change. Why? Because the commitment represents some version of change. The commitment was not there one day, and the next day it was. Presto! Change. Even if the deadline comes and goes, the commitment remains with the person. In fact, if actually quitting the habit is too difficult, the person may go through in series of activities to help bring about the behavior change…nicotine patches, hypnotism, classes, etc. What sustains the person is that change did occur; however, it occurred attitudinally, not behaviorally. Yet, the person may cope with the dissonance of not actually quitting by coming to believe that the commitment to quit represents a change of sufficient magnitude. Sure, we may call this rationalizing. But it’s a very powerful psychological mechanism for resisting change. ... When we consider how continuous improvement can occur, it’s important to be mindful of the tendency to resist change so that we are more prepared to embrace it.