{"id":4061,"date":"2019-12-06T02:01:53","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T07:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=4061"},"modified":"2020-12-18T22:36:01","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T03:36:01","slug":"do-you-know-how-to-utilize-insights-from-human-psychology-in-managing-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/do-you-know-how-to-utilize-insights-from-human-psychology-in-managing-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Know How To Utilize Insights From Human Psychology in Managing Change?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Transformation<\/a> programs targeted towards boosting organizational performance have been prevalent for quite a while now.\u00a0 But, such initiatives aren\u2019t easy to manage.\u00a0 The foremost challenge for the senior leadership is to motivate people to modify their behaviors and practices.<\/p>\n

For the transformation to be successful, it is critical for the top management to establish the magnitude of change necessary to realize the required business results, before initiating performance improvement projects. \u00a0They can select from the 3 levels of change. \u00a0The first level is where firms operate directly to achieve results, without altering the work practices of their people. \u00a0At the second level, people are compelled to alter their ways in line with their current behaviors in order to achieve a new target.\u00a0 The third level involves a fundamental cultural transformation, changing the mindsets of the whole organization\u2014e.g., from reactive to proactive, strong tiered to forthcoming, inward focused to external focused.<\/p>\n

Senior management can get valuable insights from psychology to understand the attitudes, personality types, and thought processes of individuals to improve performance.\u00a0 Utilizing these insights several enterprises have generated amazing, deeply embedded shifts in the mindsets of people.\u00a0 Transformation initiatives that employed psychological developments related to the ways people contemplate and perform are more likely to revolutionize work practices, shift behaviors, and generate improved results.<\/p>\n

Change will only be acceptable to employees if they are inspired to think about their responsibilities in a different way.\u00a0 This entails understanding the 4 core conditions of Psychology of Change Management<\/strong><\/a> that are essential to alter the existing mindsets of people to the desired mindsets:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Belief in a Purpose<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Reinforcement Systems<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Ability to Change<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Consistent Role Models<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Belief in a Purpose<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The first condition to bring about transformation is for the people to have faith in the rationale for change. \u00a0As per Leon Festinger\u2019s theory of cognitive dissonance, a distressing mental state occurs in individuals when they find that their beliefs are contradicting their actions. \u00a0Festinger observed that it is necessary to eliminate cognitive dissonance in people by changing either their actions or their beliefs.<\/p>\n

    It is critical for the people to believe in the overall purpose of the transformation initiatives that the organization has, or is planning to initiate, and understand the part that their jobs can play in the company\u2019s growth.\u00a0 This will lead them to agree to alter their individual behaviors, feel comfortable with the change, and be willing to execute it.<\/p>\n

    Reinforcement Systems<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Psychologists interested in encouraging organizational human resources adopted B. F. Skinner\u2019s theories of conditioning and positive reinforcement.\u00a0 Just as the subjects of Skinner\u2019s experiments were inspired to accomplish the dull task of traversing a maze by providing the right incentives, organizational designers accept that the right incentives and reinforcement systems constructively influence people to do their jobs efficiently.<\/p>\n

    Reinforcement systems include reporting structures, operational processes, and procedures\u2014setting targets, measuring performance, and presenting rewards. \u00a0However, these incentives should be in line with the new behaviors that people are required to adopt.<\/p>\n

    Ability to Change<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Change initiatives often tend to urge people to act differently without training them on the ways to adjust broad guidelines as per their specific circumstances.\u00a0 For instance, change initiatives may require people to become \u201ccustomer-centric,\u201d but if the organization did not focus on customers earlier, the people will have no clue as to how to implement this value and what would entail a successful result in this case.<\/p>\n

    As substantiated by David Kolb\u2019s four-phase adult learning cycle, to make adults learn they need much more than listening to instructions about a subject in one session; they need time.<\/p>\n

    Consistent Role Models<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Consistent role modeling is as important in changing the behavior of adults as the 3 other core conditions collectively. \u00a0Individuals, just like children, choose different role models\u2014personalities in positions of influence, such as a partner, director, a union rep\u2014whose behaviors and actions they mimic.\u00a0 Sustainable change in behaviors warrants top management\u2019s full alignment with the new methods of doing business as well as making role models\u2019 backing up their words with action.<\/p>\n

    The approaches that the role models employ differ from person to person, however, their behaviors should be in accordance with the guiding principles. \u00a0You can learn more about the 4 core conditions to shifting mindsets alongside some real-life, practical examples here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    Transpersonal Psychology Workshops<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Simply understanding the rationale for change\u2014its importance for the company\u2014does not influence people to adopt the desired behaviors.\u00a0 It necessitates a profound belief that it will be beneficial for their own development and progression. \u00a0As corroborated by Transpersonal Psychology, the intrinsic craving to develop and grow instills human beings with energy. \u00a0Leaders need to create an emotional connection for the employees with the new behavior to prompt that change. \u00a0Transpersonal psychology workshops are of significant assistance in changing mindsets by creating such emotional connections and assigning change a specific value for individuals.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Interested in learning more about the value that transpersonal psychology workshops generate and how to actually organize them? \u00a0You can learn more about the Psychology of Change Management<\/strong><\/a> and download an editable PowerPoint about here on the Flevy documents marketplace.<\/p>\n

    Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n

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    \u2013 Omar Hern\u00e1n Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Transformation programs targeted towards boosting organizational performance have been prevalent for quite a while now.\u00a0 But, such initiatives aren\u2019t easy to manage.\u00a0 The foremost challenge for the senior leadership is to motivate people to modify their behaviors and practices. For the transformation to be successful, it is critical for the top management to establish the… Do You Know How To Utilize Insights From Human Psychology in Managing Change?\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":4064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408,85],"tags":[1146,228,824,1349],"class_list":["post-4061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","category-organization","tag-behavioral-psychology","tag-change-management","tag-transformation","tag-transpersonal-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4061"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7861,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions\/7861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}