{"id":2727,"date":"2013-10-04T14:28:05","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T13:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/?p=2727"},"modified":"2016-03-04T10:25:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T10:25:22","slug":"engaging-people-in-change-why-bother-with-mind-emotions-and-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/2013\/10\/04\/engaging-people-in-change-why-bother-with-mind-emotions-and-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging people in change – why bother with mind, emotions and matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Our<\/a>
Our brains process rational, physical & emotional responses to the wider world in which we live, work, learn & adapt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is plenty of material which draws us to consider the rational and emotional aspects of change. There is also plenty of conjecture available (on the web, dare I say) about the functioning of the human mind in relation to work.<\/p>\n

We have already mentioned elsewhere on this blog site how easy it is to shrug off the importance of emotions at work<\/a>. Emotions, rather than being dealt with and utilised, are often herded into one of two extreme boxes; ‘negative’ feelings (e.g. fear, discouragement, depression, disillusionment, upset) on one hand, or ‘positive’ feelings (e.g. celebration, recognition, encouragement) on the other.<\/p>\n

However if we are sharing opinions or ideas or even\u00a0managing more complex changes in the workplace,\u00a0we should take more care to consider the importance\u00a0of the emotional engagement of colleagues.<\/p>\n

Rarely does rational argument win the day; often either physical elements (e.g. hierarchy) or emotional elements (e.g. engaging support) are also needed.<\/p>\n

As Seddon states, time and time again, change is a normative process. <\/strong><\/em>What does he mean by this? What IS<\/strong><\/em> ‘normative’? Normative status is based upon our social understanding and values – we stick to what we stick to; we believe what we believe. Until these perspectives (or ‘paradigms – there is that word again!) are challenged and a person is willing to re-educate themselves, then different possibilities will often remain rejected or ignored.<\/p>\n

Change has to be an experiential process<\/strong><\/em> and part of that process is to ‘un-learn’ previous thinking. It is possible to do this – even world -class golfers can unlearn and re-learn how to hit a golf ball in order to make significant improvement. Nevertheless this is a difficult thing to do. A person has to be ready and willing – emotionally engaged – to want<\/span> to make the change. And that is just to change a golf swing!<\/p>\n

STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 which will work best?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Power ~ Coercive <\/i><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

BUT…<\/p>\n

Assumes that people are generally compliant so will usually do what they are told or can be made to do. Change is achieved by exercising authority and by imposing sanctions<\/strong><\/em>. R<\/strong>elies on authority, and the ability to police future actions.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Empirical ~ Rational<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

BUT…<\/p>\n

People are rational and will follow self-interest \u2014 once those interests have been revealed to them. Change is based on the communication of information and offers of incentives. F<\/strong><\/em>ocuses on incentives, which need to work over the long term.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Normative ~ Re-educative <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
*TRY THIS APPROACH!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People are social creatures and will follow cultural beliefs, traditions and values. Change is based on redefining and reinterpreting these norms & values, and developing people’s commitments to new ones.<\/p>\n

If you encourage people to seek knowledge and identify changes that will be helpful, you s<\/strong>teer their learning towards the issues which people need<\/span> to learn in order to make things better.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Further Reading:<\/p>\n

Bennis,W. G., Benne, K.D. and Chin R. (1969) The Planning of Change. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, NY<\/p>\n

Jacobs, C.J. (2009) Management Rewired: Why Feedback Doesn\u2019t Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science, Penguin Group Portfolio, NY<\/p>\n

Seddon, J. (2005) Freedom from Command and Control, Vanguard Press, Buckingham, UK.<\/p>\n

Sherkenbach W.W. (1991) Deming\u2019s Road to Continual Improvement, SPS Press, Knoxville, TE<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is plenty of material which draws us to consider the rational and emotional aspects of change. There is also plenty of conjecture available (on the web, dare I say) about the functioning of the human mind in relation to work. We have already mentioned elsewhere on this blog site how easy it is to … Continue reading Engaging people in change – why bother with mind, emotions and matter?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2246,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118935,119323,118661,119322,119316],"tags":[50690],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2727"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4778,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727\/revisions\/4778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}