How to fix change resistance in your organisation in 5 minutes

Do you know that feeling when you need to start doing something differently, but you just can’t find the motivation to start or persist? It feels too hard, you don’t have the willpower or you keep forgetting. Maybe it is not you who is resistant to change, but your team. You’re trying to implement the new CRM, sales model, or a strategy with your team but there is no real change in behaviour. We’re talking about typical change management issues here.

It is likely, in fact, that you’re thinking about change the wrong way. Conventional wisdom tells us that change begins in the mind: If you change your mind, your actions will follow. What if change actually begins with action? When you change your actions, your mind follows.

Change the attitude towards learning

It turns out that both of these logics are true and both can be utilised when implementing change. If we just engage in small, nanoscale actions, our thoughts and feelings towards that behaviour are likely to change. This may work even when in situations where our initial attitudes are critical towards the pursued habit. For instance, your initial attitude towards learning French or using a new CRM system may be neutral or even negative. However, when you start learning / using it in very small pieces, you start to enjoy it.

The logic works both with individuals and with groups. Let’s say that you would like to change the resisting attitudes of your team towards a new way of working. If you can engage your team into repeating simple, nanoscale actions, their attitudes are likely to follow. This discovery can be explained with two psychological theories:

• theories of self-perception

• the theory of cognitive dissonance.

Self-perception theory states that actions influence attitudes because people interpret their attitudes by observing their own behaviour. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that when people become aware that their freely chosen actions violate their attitudes, they change their initial attitudes to make them consistent with their behaviour. It is easier to change attitudes than it is to go back and change behaviour that has already occurred.

A leadership Nanohabit you can test immediately

Next time there is a need to implement a new strategy, process, software, or behaviour, remember that not only the mind affects actions, but that actions affect the mind. Test the following Nanohabit: Each time you tell your team about the reasons why to implement a new behaviour, make sure to attach a very small, accompanying new behaviour, which is regularly repeated.

Let action weave it’s magic on your mind! Nanohabits® help companies to build fast and lasting change. If you are interested in finding more ways to help your business reach its goals, contact us.

Sources:

1. Bem, D. J. (1972). Self-Perception Theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology Volume 6 Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, pp. 1-62.

2. Olson, J. M. and Stone, J. (2005). The influence of behavior on attitudes. In: D. Albarracín, B. T. Johnson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The handbook of attitudes (pp. 223–271). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.3. Cooper, J. M. (2007). Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classical theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

4. Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.

5. Harmon-Jones, E. and Mills, J. (1999). Cognitive dissonance. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

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