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Anyone having worked as a leader, project manager or change manager will tell you how challenging it can be to get people to change. And it is for this very reason that psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists have dedicated so much time to trying to understand the drivers behind human behavioural change. As change practitioners, we draw from a diverse range of toolkits such as nudge behavioural techniques to other well researched and tested models and theories to help encourage impacted communities to change. We assess the impact of the change. We look at how the change will positively affect individuals and the companies within which they work. We create exciting and compelling campaigns designed to inspire people to move from one state to another. We use assessments and data to gain accurate and measurable insights into current perceptions and behaviours, and we then analyse and track changes relating to the effectiveness of how well these initiatives have landed. And yet… through it all, we still end up with individuals or teams flat out rejecting the change. This can be a frustrating aspect of the work we do. Resilience and tenacity are key attributes needed for the job.
That said, I have taken some degree of comfort in realising that the challenges we face as a change management community are in no way unique. The recently implemented COVID-19 shutdown here in South Africa has illustrated so clearly, that no matter how dire the circumstances, and even in the face of a very real threat to life, people will still resist change. What has been of real interest to me is how the challenges relating to the current pandemic link back so perfectly to the challenges we face as practitioners in our day-to-day delivery. And there are several lessons that we can all take away from this unprecedented modern-day pandemic.
Important disclaimer: I acknowledge the very real socio-economic challenges that have made it almost impossible for certain disadvantaged individuals and communities within our population to self-isolate, and the purpose of this piece is in no way aimed at trivialising or ignoring these factors. Instead it is to try and identify areas where sound change management principles and practices can be linked back to some of the challenges we are currently facing around the world.
1. Consistent messaging and dispelling of rumours and half-truths
One of the biggest contributors to the low adoption levels has certainly been the amount of misinformation, half-truths and conspiracy theories that have muddied the COVID-19 waters. This has created so much doubt and impacted rational, informed decision making.
Dealing with inconsistent messaging and the proverbial rumour-mill is something we must deal with daily as change practitioners. Ensuring that there are uniform messages that are used by all leaders and key stakeholders helps to mitigate some of this risk. Having a comprehensive communications strategy also ensures that the right information is shared at the right time. Lastly, addressing rumours, misinformation and missing information should be dealt with as a matter of priority to ensure that these do not impact the message being communicated out and received.
2. Responsible and ethical leadership
The role that world leaders and other religious and social leaders have played in the current pandemic can in no way be underestimated. Many leaders around the globe have been found to be sorely lacking in ethical leadership skills. Uninformed and blasé comments have had a devastating impact on communities taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously.
This links in very closely with point 1 as these leaders are usually the primary communicators expected to deliver consistent messaging and information. If all leaders are not aligned, the value and impact of the message gets compromised, resulting in resistance and failed behaviour change. Prosci’s annual global benchmarking studies have consistently identified active sponsorship and involved, aligned leaders as one of the most important drivers of successful change. If leaders are not onboard or aligned in terms of the approach, management and communication of the change, your chances of success are slim.
3. The power of Influencers
We have seen many celebrities and other social ‘influencers’ speaking up and in support of concepts such as social distancing and staying at home. We have also unfortunately seen many influential individuals behaving in ways that completely contradict the desired expected new norms by holding mass gatherings in defiance of the science, the law and general common sense.
The theory of social learning and social behaviour proposes that new behaviours can be acquired by observing and imitating others, something that leaders, celebrities and others are well aware of. As change managers, we often employ strategies that leverage off the power and influence of key individuals and leaders to help drive behavioural change. The diffusion of innovation theory is a popular tool that we use, identifying early adopters and innovators and partnering with them to help drive our proposed change. Of equal importance is identifying the laggards, our resistors, and in instances where these individuals wield power and influence, looking at strategies to manage the disruption and noise that they bring. We need to be very aware of the power that both change advocates and detractors have, as failing to mitigate the associated risk may result in the failure of our best change efforts.
4. People not having the skills or the means to change
Linking in with my earlier disclaimer, one of the very real challenges facing not only South Africa but also countries like India and Nigeria, is that large segments of the population simply lack the infrastructure or means to socially isolate. Our townships and informal settlements, legacies of the apartheid system, do not allow for people to safely quarantine themselves. Our socio-economic landscape also means that many of these communities lack access to clean water and sanitation or the ability to stockpile food, thereby restricting how often they need to leave the house. Many people want to abide by the lockdown measures yet simply cannot do so.
The need to empower and enable people to embrace and adopt change requires that we understand the skills and other requirements that are needed to do so. An example of this could be a company wanting to transition to a more mobile workforce, without ensuring the correct infrastructure has been put in place to enable this i.e. ensuring employees have the required connectivity and hardware to work from home. We use tools like a change impact assessment to identify knowledge, skills and capability gaps or brand-new requirements, and for these to be addressed as part of the change management function. This can take the form of formal training, coaching, organisational redesign, the development of new job profiles and associated performance indicators etc. Failure to do so will again result in the failure of the overall change or cause delays in the speed of adoption and overall benefits realisation.
5. The ask being just ‘too big’
“You want me to give up what?” “I can’t walk my dog?” “What do you mean I can’t go out for a run?” “Surely you don’t expect me to go 3 weeks without cigarettes!!” These are just some of the statements that we have all seen or heard over the last few weeks. And they really speak back to the requested behavioural change being perceived as being far too great an ask. For many, the grim reality of the virus and its impact on the individual once infected is too far removed, too theoretical… something that is happening to others and therefore not important enough to make them want to change. They may simply be too invested in the old way of doing things.
We often use a tool called the Change Commitment Curve (based on Elizabeth Kubler-Ross stages of grief model) to plot people’s emotional and psychological states during a change. In addition to this, Freud’s pleasure-pain principle helps us understand how people may either be motivated to change either because they are moving away from a source of pain or towards an opportunity (pleasure) or both. It becomes really important for us as change practitioners to understand why people may be resisting the change. What are they scared of losing? And how do we help create a compelling vision of a future state that they would want to move to. A great example linking back to the current shutdown has been the establishment of a virtual community called the Mzansi Lockdown Marathon, whereby runners have been encouraged to participate in running 42km over the duration of the lockdown, within the confines of their homes. This has given many of us runners something to focus on, helping reduce the sting of not being able to hit the open road while still getting our endorphin fix!
6. The power of data in driving change
Lastly, one of the biggest topics of discussion relating to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the importance of testing and gathering of related data to help inform decision making to curb the spread of the virus. A recent article published in STAT News, a US based health-oriented website by John P.A. Ioannidis, refers to the challenge facing the global health and science communities tasked with fighting the disease, as decisions are having to be made often without much needed, reliable data (2020). In an age of big data, data science and data analytics, we are well aware of the importance of metrics as enablers of behavioural change. And linking in with point 1, questions around the accuracy of reporting of cases and associated deaths in countries such as China have made modelling and predictions that much more difficult.
The use of data, metrics and reporting thereof throughout the change journey forms the backbone of the work of the change management professional. Industry leaders such as Prosci, have long been firm advocates and drivers of change management related research and their annual global benchmarking study continues to identify important trends and insights aimed at helping to shape the industry and its practitioners. Anyone who has ever worked on a project or change initiative where there has been limited, incomplete or inaccurate data can attest to how difficult this has made decision making and the delivery of successful change.
In closing, there is much that we can learn from this global pandemic regarding behavioural change that speaks back to the importance of the discipline of change management. We are challenged with turning the mirror both outward and inward. We are all social critics and commentators – it is easy to find fault when looking outwards at the world around us. Let us however not miss this opportunity to look with fresh eyes at our own change management initiatives and identify new ways of working and continuous improvement. Let us be the curious social observers with a keen interest in understanding the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind behavioural change. And let us take always take heart in the power and opportunity that we have to effect change and transformation at a micro and even macro level.
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