Change and the elasticity of human systems

Change and the elasticity of human systems

One of the most frustrating things that people encounter in their business lives, in their communities and in their own lives is change.  Let’s talk about why change is so hard for humans and what you can do to overcome this challenge.

One of the smartest things that I have ever heard, and I don’t remember where I first heard it, it might have been one of Malcom Gladwell’s books, Is that humans and human systems are elastic.

What does this mean and why do we care?

What it means is that you can’t change a human system and expect it to stay changed.  Human systems are elastic, like rubber bands, and try to return to their previous state.

Why you care is that most of the systems you deal with every day are human systems and if you want to achieve lasting change, positive movement, you need to understand and be prepared for this elasticity.

Another reason you care is that YOU are a human system.  The elasticity of change applies to you and your efforts to change.

I see elasticity in action at work all the time.  It causes frustration.  You’ve seen it too.  Let’s say there is a new process.  Everyone follows the new process for awhile but over time they back slide and return to the old process.

Managers are baffled.  They reason that they explained the new process, how come people stopped using it?  There are many factors of course but one of them is the elastic nature of human systems.

Sometimes your success will be determined by a new process being adopted and then you need to know how to make it stick.

In training or consulting you’ll hear people say, “They never internalized the new process”.  This means that they may have learned it, but they never mastered it and they never owned it.  It wasn’t their process; it was someone else’s process that they were forced to learn and as soon as they could they got away from it and returned to their own process.

To counteract this you need to reinforce the process.  The best and simplest way to do this is through repetition.  The more a new thing is practiced the sooner and more deeply it will be adopted.  My rule of thumb is that adults need to see something a minimum of three times before they will internalize it.

I used to get frustrated by this.  “Are they stupid? I told them what to do and they’re not doing it!” You need to have patience and persistence in your message.  Assume you will have to say the same thing three times and work that into your change plans.

We have discussed before how, when you start with a stable system, it will resist change.  When you introduce that change you need to introduce it with not only a magnitude that will move the system but also with a persistence that will keep the system moved.

Systems have inertia and don’t like to change.  If a company or person has been doing something the same way for a long time, there will be big inertia and you will need to plan for big, persistent change.

What stymies many rookie change agents is that they assume if a change is for the better people will logically embrace it.  If that was true no one would smoke or be fat.  Humans systems resist change and many times they do so irrationally.

That is not to say that being able to explain the benefit of the change is a bad thing.  Adult humans absolutely need to know ‘why’ before they can start down the change path, but the why may not be enough.  Tony Robins has made a fortune teaching people how to trick themselves into change by manipulating reward and punishment.

Start with the rational ‘why’ they should change.  It is more profitable, you will be healthier, the rest of the company will be able to see the data, etc.  Then build your plan of persistence on top of that.  Be prepared to hang in there and fight that elasticity with persistence.

Some of the most effective change managers I know simply put a stake in the ground and use their resolve to outlast the forces of elasticity.  They doggedly stick to their guns and calmly keep resolute to their message until the resistance runs out of energy.

I’m not going to go into great detail here, because the important point that I want leave with is this.  Human systems are elastic.  As soon as you understand this, a light should go off in your head.  It will explain many of the frustrating irrational situations you find yourself in.

If the change is important to you, you have to steel yourself with the conviction of persistence and placidly wait the recalcitrant opposition forces out.