Your questions answered, Inside Track, April 2011
I’ve recently taken on a change management role and behaviour change looks to be a significant part of it – what’s the latest thinking?
Rather than the latest thinking, remind yourself about some basic truths. Psychology research says there are four components to changing behavioural habits in an individual. Make sure your change programme, at the very least, has these building blocks of change covered:
- Awareness – people have to be able to see and understand the difference between how things were and how things should be. They need to be able to be mindful of how they do things and monitor the triggers that push them into old behaviours or jolt them into remembering the new
- Goals – break the change down into short term attainable goals that provide a focus for awareness and effort. Be realistic and aspirational – don’t let the failure to reach stretch goals becomes a habitual excuse to give up
- Practice – people have to get their heads and hands around change and people have different learning styles but there is no substitute for practicing the new behaviour, acting it out, exploring how it feels so that it can be applied with more confidence in real workplace situations
- Support – it’s hard to change in splendid isolation and hard to sustain change so build in support mechanisms – people to provide encouragement and keep you honest, group efforts and incentives to feel like we’re all in this together.
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