#1 | By Giving People The Wheel
Avoid prescribing behavioural changes to your leaders
Hello!
As an HR leader who frequently runs developmental programs, you would be familiar with how their impact can vary widely – and often wildly!
Through editions every three weeks of How Programs Fly, we aim to share our knowledge and toolkits to propel your programs to fly further, higher, and for longer.
In this edition, we explore our first building block that makes programs fly: The design should allow for participants to tap into their innate will to grow. This notion is often the cornerstone (if you ask us) or the stumbling block (if you look around) to running programs that fly.
Without this in place, people feel pressured to accept a certain attitude. which they view as their freedom being threatened, and which finally turns into a strong, unpleasant reaction — or 'Reactance' in psychology terms.
Right, it's time to fly!
As a Project Manager at McKinsey & Co., I supervised several transformation projects where the aim was to change how people did things in order to boost productivity. In essence, we would design a process and tell people, "You need to change!"
Roughly 20% of people found it easy to adopt. The remaining were resistant. We regularly achieved our desired levels of impact, but there was an unspoken belief that once the consultants leave, people revert to their old ways.
To me, the message was clear: Handing people a change agenda that tells them how to change rarely works – and not for very long anyway.
Then there's the contrasting approach which says that humans beings have an innate aspiration to evolve towards more happiness and effectiveness. This is what Potentialife as a transformation partner focuses on, and this is also what this edition focuses on: Giving the choice to choose one's direction of change is a recipe for sustained and meaningful change.
We explore the 'Why' and 'How' of this idea through five breezy parts, strung together like a story.
Let's start with the classic 'Immunity to Change' article by Robert Kegan, published in the Harvard Business Review.
The choice of the word "immunity" is interesting. We've, of course, heard this word a lot in recent times, and recognize "immunity" to be the body's defense mechanism against a re-run of being invaded by a foreign virus.
Well, Robert's research showed that people develop a similar kind of immunity to an externally-determined or organizationally-driven change agenda. It's their way of preventing something 'foreign' from entering their value system.
His research was a revelation at the time (and continues to be!) because we still wrongly equate resistance to change with opposition to it, or inertia. This is false. Any externally-determined change agenda invariably creates conflict with people's own, pre-existing commitment to their own values and goals.
It's a no-brainer how people resolve this conflict: They resist externally-determined change.
How is this resolved? There are two approaches. The first is to lower the barriers to change. This is what Robert's article describes.
The second approach, which Potentialife has seen extraordinary results with, is to help people make the change agenda "self-concordant".
Self-what? Self-concordant.
Here's our Founder, Tal Ben-Shahar, describing the concept in his timeless book, Happier:
"Self-concordant goals are those we pursue out of deep personal conviction and/or a strong interest. We pursue these goals not because others think we should or because we feel obligated to, but because we really want to —because we find them significant and enjoyable."
Now, the thing with self-concordant goals is that there is a process to follow in order to set them. Left on our own, our goals are likely to be 'socially-compliant' and a reflection of what we think we 'should' or 'need' to do.
Unsurprisingly, these goals are hardly ever attained (Think: New Year Resolutions or Post-Appraisal Goal-Setting!)
What people need, instead, is a clear process to tune in to what's meaningful and significant to them. We've implemented the Inner Growth Goals workshop at scale, and we'd like to enable you, as someone who frequently runs programs, to do the same with this toolkit.
Inside, you'll find a guide with all the information you need, as well as an open document you can share with participants. Access it here.
Riaz Mulla, Head - Leadership Learning and Talent Dev at Tech Mahindra, describes the importance of setting self-concordant goals as the key to fulfillment.
In his words, "When you set goals that align with your ecology, that have roots in your purpose, it gives you the inspiration needed to put in the required efforts, and a sense of fulfillment as you progress."
Now, for the next 60 seconds, let's put our jobs and roles on the back-burner. Let's bring our personal selves to the foreground. It's fair to assume that 'YOU' have been wanting to evolve your habits and grow in so many ways. Pause for a minute and dedicate your attention towards this.
Think of at least one self-concordant goal in any area of life
Install this Habit Tracker app (It's simple to use, intelligently built, and free!)
Enter your self-concordant goal and set an appropriate recurring reminder
Tal Ben-Shahar often talks about the3R's of behaviour change: Reminders lead to Repetition which create Rituals. Habit Trackers help set this in motion.
Try it on as a small personal experiment for a few weeks, and then review.
Let's close this edition with three ideas that sum it all up:
People find it difficult to connect to externally-driven change agendas
Giving people the wheel to tap into their innate will is a game-changer
Programs that incorporate this thinking have higher participant adoption, engagement rates, as well as greater and more sustained impact
This is just one of the key elements that helps programs fly. We'll be back with Edition Two exactly three weeks from now, with a focus on how the Momentum Effect can continuously spur excitement, engagement, and impact of a program.
We love playing the role of thought partners, so if you need more information or have something to ask, we're happy to set up an informal interaction with you, no strings attached.
Until the next edition!
