No One Likes Change... Apparently

‘People don’t like change.’ I hear this statement a lot. But it is one of those all-encompassing statements applied to a large group of people with really no firm basis.

Sure, in some cases, this statement is absolutely true. There is a proportion of our society which are hardwired that way. They like their lives as they are and they want to keep it that way.

On the other hand there are those who love change. They love anything new and are quick to adapt to new ways of doing things. They are good to have on your side when you are introducing change.

Change is all around us. It is happening all the time. We see it in our everyday lives. Technology is the easiest to see – phones, laptops, all manner of personal electronic devices. How our society operates now is different to when I was born. It’s different to five, ten years ago. It is ever evolving, and whether we think it is for the better or the worse, it is always happening.

At the base of it, people resist change because they perceive the coming change is a threat to them. It may be a threat to their position, a threat to the income they need to survive, they may need to take on new responsibilities or tasks which they are unsure of. This perceived threat to the self sets the limbic system in our brain into action, sending messages of threat out to the brain in order to protect itself. The resulting behaviour may not be very becoming of the individual. Even those people who like change may have a not very nice reaction.

The answer is in the messaging you provide to those on the receiving end of the perceived threat. The solutions are there and it is possible to take everyone on the new journey of change.

Want to know how?