Have you ever thought that you would like your life to be different? Perhaps you would like to lose weight or start an exercise routine. Perhaps you believe you have some important thoughts that you would like to share, but you’ve not managed to begin your book. Many of us would like to quit drinking or have a more effective spiritual life, but cannot seem to get on track. Some of us have even made commitments to God and to others but find ourselves unable to follow through time and again. Why is that? Why is change so hard?
For both individuals and organizations, change is extremely difficult to negotiate, and there are some important reasons why. In individual life, the mind has a tendency to fight change. In studying the work of professional coaches, I have noticed that coaches focus on the mindset of their candidates before working on particular actions. Their reason? The individual’s mindset is the primary determiner of his or her success. For their client to become successful, he or she must change their mind. The mind is geared for the safety that comes with repetition and the efficiency of known processes. In order to change the mind has to be challenged to do new things, think new ideas, and function differently. Further, it has to be prevented from falling back into old patterns.
A more troubling aspect of change is that it affects the people around you. Have you ever watched the show My Six Hundred Pound Life? The show follows people who have become so overweight that they are seeking surgical help. What is interesting to note is that the positive participation of the family in the change process is of determinative of the success of the candidate. In other words, the family can undermine the success of the person trying to lose weight. This is true in just about every change process. The people that are closest to us are invested in the way we behave, the way we currently are. If we change, they have to react. That can make them very uncomfortable. If they react negatively it is not malicious, it is merely a reflex. They are avoiding change just as much as we once avoided it. The late psychologist Edwin Friedman called the process by which people we are related to undo our best efforts at change “seduction” and “sabotage.” These processes are almost always at work when one is attempting real and lasting change. The fact that these processes are at work does not make those we are in relationships with our enemies, however. It simply means that we must be cognizant of our own anxieties and remained focused on the change we want to implement. Our loved ones will adjust. It just may take time.
Change in individual life is difficult, but change in organizational life is much more complicated. An organization that has reached a peak in performance and effectiveness often reaches a place organizational theorists refer to as “homeostasis.” Used in this context, “homeostasis” refers to a sense of balance where the system is balanced against perceived threats. Unfortunately, homeostasis can result in a system steadfastly opposed to change. Any system opposed to change is, well, doomed.
Organizations also fall into what is known as a “means-ends inversion.” Simply put they value the way they do things rather than the result they were trying to achieve. The goal gets lost in the process. Everything gets pushed toward doing the same things that the institution has always done in the exact same way it has always done them. That is why organizations offer services their customers have long stopped wanting, why congregations offer programs that are not reaching their communities, and why business refuse to try new methods.
The trick to organizational change, much like individual change, is focus. For the individual, a significant reason for the change must be in mind. The reason has to be large enough to overcome the inevitable opposition. For the organization, it requires a consistent focus on its goal. Why does the organization exist? What is its purpose? How will it carry out its mission? If the organization can keep the focus on these questions then it can seriously look at its processes and programs to make sure they achieve the desired results.
Congregational change guru Peter Steinke gives some axioms about change that are not only true for churches but individuals as well:
- You can never make only one change. Change here creates change everywhere.
- Change arouses survival instincts.
- Change starts small and grows larger.
- No change in organizations will occur unless people change how they function with one another.
- Learning is change. Resistance grows weaker as familiarity increases.
- Congregations (organizations, and families, I might add) that systematically avoid conflict are very likely to avoid change.
Change is a difficult, even scary proposition, but every good thing you want in your life, your business, and your church is on the other side of change. Press on!
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