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Why Your Brain is Wired for Negative Thoughts & How to Change It.

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Why Your Brain is Wired for Negative Thoughts & How to Change It.

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How to Become More Comfortable with Change

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How to Become More Comfortable with Change

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The pace of change has increased massively in light of the pandemic. Managing it now requires a strategy akin to whitewater rafting. New and unpredictable obstacles will continue to present themselves every day - and not just for companies, but for workers themselves.

As someone entering the workforce, you should expect to face the many challenges that accompany fast-paced change. Some of you may be joining a new company, leading a new team, or reporting to a brand new boss. Others may find that the scope of your projects shift more frequently or that your pitches must be updated more often to keep up with competitors.

No matter what job or industry you pursue, you'll need to learn how to be adaptable and navigate these experiences gracefully to grow in your career. Your mindset, above all else, will have a major impact on whether you succeed.

Unfortunately, too many of us have the mindset that "change is temporary." When you see something as temporary, you tend to cope with it instead of accept it - and if you don't learn how to accept, embrace, and work through your discomfort in unfamiliar situations, you will inevitably find it difficult to progress in the rapidly evolving world of work.

Here's the good news: You can change your subconscious mindset by making a conscious effort. By learning how you think about change, you can train yourself to recognize (and avoid) the three unhelpful mindsets below. In turn, you're more likely to embrace a change-ready approach to work.

3 Common Change-Averse Mindsets

Receivers

If you typically see change as something pushed on you, you're likely a "receiver." In some situations, you might feel that the change exceeds your scope of responsibility or authority.

For example, let's say your boss and other senior leaders suddenly shift the direction of a project you have been working on for a few months. You and your teammates have done the work and see some customer-related issues with the new direction. But you are fresh at the company, and because you have a receiver mindset, you decide that the more seasoned leaders are probably right. You go along with the new direction, dumping all the work that you have done.

Change might feel "above your pay grade," and this can result in a flight response - not in a physical sense, but in terms of your own agency. Your sense of self-confidence or feelings of being in control might be shaken up.

By reacting this way, you largely abdicate your own authority. You might "look up" for direction, trusting that your boss (or their boss) will be the one to get the organization through the change.
Signs you're a "receiver"

You wait for direction from others before moving forward.

You escalate decisions, assuming they're "above my pay grade."

You accept decisions (even when you don't think they will work) to avoid questioning your boss.

In contrast, someone who is change-ready believes that everyone has their own talents and contributions to bring to the table. You might be change-ready if you want to see the decision made by the people closest to the work - which might be you.
How to shift toward a change-ready mindset:

Find a "no regret" move for you or your team to take. Figure out an action you can take that is not only consistent with the change, but also valuable in the short term.

Generate possible solutions before you take any problem to your boss.

Back up any reservations you have about a decision with data or perspectives that might not have been known or included during the original discussion.

Resistors

Resistors are less passive than receivers, but that's not necessarily a good thing. If you're a resistor, you might try to maintain your own power by pushing back against change and those who are championing it. Resistors rely on their own experience and information and try to maintain their current situation by resisting change with the belief that it will go away soon (a belief that is nearly always incorrect).

If you're a resistor, you might freeze, choose inaction, or take only the actions that you yourself can control. Resistance can take many forms: questioning the authority of the change leaders, seemingly agreeing to a change and then doing nothing, poking holes in plans as a means of delaying action, or explaining the reasons the change does not apply to you.

At the end of the day, resistors hope to wait out change. For example, consider the same situation as before - your project is given new direction by the higher-ups at your organization. As a resistor, you might start asking detailed questions about the new direction that supports the work you and your team have already done. You try to protect - and not change - the work done to date.
Signs you're a "resistor"

You bring up reasons that something cannot be done based on precedent or history.

You agree to a stated commitment, and then find reasons not to execute on it later.

You poke holes in plans as a means of avoiding or stalling action.

A change-ready person knows that the enduring success and direction of the organization is the North Star for all action. As industries change to keep pace with evolving customer needs and unexpected disruptors, the change-ready mindset looks to the positive - often customer-driven - reasons for change. Being change-ready means seeing opportunities rather than threats and finding your own motivation to change.
How to shift toward a change-ready mindset:

Explore how the proposed action or solution is different from what happened in the past. Be informed by the past - but not captured by it.

Raise your reservations at the appropriate time (team meetings, ideation sessions, or project planning). Participate in the debate to get to a better solution, see how the sausage is made, and then commit to the decision (regardless of whether it was your idea).

Ask questions that improve and encourage the solution rather than shut it down. For example, try to avoid asking things like: "How do you expect me to get all this done?" Instead, you ask: "What are the one or two most important ways I could help make this successful?"

Controllers

If you're a controller, your goal is to control change and stabilize or manage its effect around you. That means you take charge by taking the reins. You might create exhaustive lists, try to consider all the risks, and overanalyze details to give yourself a sense of control. This might sound good, but it's ultimately a fight response, because even the most well-crafted plan must eventually contend with unexpected circumstances. If you believe you've controlled change and see obstacles and missteps as failures, you might have a tendency to micromanage or even blame others for mistakes or lack of progress.

The false silver lining for controllers is that you take ownership. You believe that it's up to you to get the team, or yourself, through the change. According to our research, however, stepping up in this way does not encourage others to truly accept the change alongside you. In reality, they might step back when you step in too much - and worse, you might find change to be stressful, exhausting, and isolating because you're doing everything by yourself.

Now let's turn back to our main example. As a controller, when your boss give you new direction on a project, you likely will try to get ahead of it. To look or feel like you're more in control, you might communicate that you anticipated the change. You might even ask for detailed input for an updated plan incorporating new items that undo much of the work you and your team have done.
Signs you're a "controller"

You seek information that supports your own views or reservations.

You prefer getting detailed instructions on what to do instead of inquiring about what has been tried already and generating a brand new plan.

You discount obstacles raised by others to stick to the plan.

In contrast, adopting a change-ready mindset means understanding that everyone has their own relationship to change, and that change might impact different people in different ways. Resistance to change is a source of information - not a barrier to overcome. So get curious. Make space for varying reactions, and work with people to define what has to be true for a change to be successful. People are more committed to changes that they help define and shape. All in all, be the author of your own future.
How to shift toward a change-ready mindset:

You can bolster your own thinking and solution-generation by including people who don't think like you and will give you candid input. Workshop your idea or solution with a diverse group of colleagues to gain perspective and improve on the idea.

When a colleague or team member comes to you for help, rather than just sharing your expertise or what you would do in the situation, ask what they've already tried. Guide them to create their own solutions and workarounds by being a thought partner.

The question isn't whether you'll encounter obstacles, but how you'll handle them when you do. Will you learn, use those lessons to improve your idea or solution, and try again?

Moving to a Change-Ready Mindset

Do you consider yourself change-ready right now? Almost everyone has a predominant relationship to change that will drive their thoughts and actions, but different situations also bring out different responses. You and your team members might also see things differently than your manager does. In fact, McKinsey research indicates that 86% of leaders see themselves as role models, while just 53% of their direct reports agree.

With that in mind, here's your guiding principle: People with a change-ready mindset know that change is continuous and see it as a source of opportunity. Carol Dweck's work on the "growth mindset" comes into play here. ​​Change-ready people look at changes both big and small as opportunities for personal development, and "failed" experiments as a rich source of learning and growth. Similarly, they look for ways to break out of old ways of thinking, stay curious, and challenge the status quo.

People sometimes say that a change-ready mindset seems too good to be true. We would argue otherwise. In 2020, we saw more people step up to meet new challenges with change-readiness than ever before, adapting to new ways of working, relating, interacting, and being. Even the most change-ready people found new, more meaningful purpose in some cases. In the most tumultuous year many of us have ever experienced, change-ready people shifted and adapted with every new obstacle and opportunity to become savvier, stronger and more resilient.

To become one of them, learn to recognize the three change-averse mindsets above and course-correct so you're always heading in the right direction.

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How to Become More Comfortable with Change

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One of the most common unconscious mindsets is that "change is temporary," but when you see something as temporary, you tend to cope with it instead of accepting and embracing it. The reality is that change is a constant, and you'll need to navigate it often in your career.

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Leadership is about change, but what is a leader to do when faced with ubiquitous resistance? Resistance to change manifests itself in many ways, from foot-dragging and inertia to petty sabotage to outright rebellions. The best tool for leaders of change is to understand the predictable, universal sources of resistance in each situation and then strategize around them. Here are the ten I've found to be the most common.

Loss of control. Change interferes with autonomy and can make people feel that they've lost control over their territory. It's not just political, as in who has the power. Our sense of self-determination is often the first things to go when faced with a potential change coming from someone else. Smart leaders leave room for those affected by change to make choices. They invite others into the planning, giving them ownership.

Excess uncertainty. If change feels like walking off a cliff blindfolded, then people will reject it. People will often prefer to remain mired in misery than to head toward an unknown. As the saying goes, "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know." To overcome inertia requires a sense of safety as well as an inspiring vision. Leaders should create certainty of process, with clear, simple steps and timetables.

Surprise, surprise! Decisions imposed on people suddenly, with no time to get used to the idea or prepare for the consequences, are generally resisted. It's always easier to say No than to say Yes. Leaders should avoid the temptation to craft changes in secret and then announce them all at once. It's better to plant seeds - that is, to sprinkle hints of what might be coming and seek input.

Everything seems different. Change is meant to bring something different, but how different? We are creatures of habit. Routines become automatic, but change jolts us into consciousness, sometimes in uncomfortable ways. Too many differences can be distracting or confusing. Leaders should try to minimize the number of unrelated differences introduced by a central change. Wherever possible keep things familiar. Remain focused on the important things; avoid change for the sake of change.

Loss of face. By definition, change is a departure from the past. Those people associated with the last version - the one that didn't work, or the one that's being superseded - are likely to be defensive about it. When change involves a big shift of strategic direction, the people responsible for the previous direction dread the perception that they must have been wrong. Leaders can help people maintain dignity by celebrating those elements of the past that are worth honoring, and making it clear that the world has changed. That makes it easier to let go and move on.

Concerns about competence. Can I do it? Change is resisted when it makes people feel stupid. They might express skepticism about whether the new software version will work or whether digital journalism is really an improvement, but down deep they are worried that their skills will be obsolete. Leaders should over-invest in structural reassurance, providing abundant information, education, training, mentors, and support systems. A period of overlap, running two systems simultaneously, helps ease transitions.

More work. Here is a universal challenge. Change is indeed more work. Those closest to the change in terms of designing and testing it are often overloaded, in part because of the inevitable unanticipated glitches in the middle of change, per "Kanter's Law" that "everything can look like a failure in the middle." Leaders should acknowledge the hard work of change by allowing some people to focus exclusively on it, or adding extra perqs for participants (meals? valet parking? massages?). They should reward and recognize participants - and their families, too, who often make unseen sacrifices.

Ripple effects. Like tossing a pebble into a pond, change creates ripples, reaching distant spots in ever-widening circles. The ripples disrupt other departments, important customers, people well outside the venture or neighborhood, and they start to push back, rebelling against changes they had nothing to do with that interfere with their own activities. Leaders should enlarge the circle of stakeholders. They must consider all affected parties, however distant, and work with them to minimize disruption.

Past resentments. The ghosts of the past are always lying in wait to haunt us. As long as everything is steady state, they remain out of sight. But the minute you need cooperation for something new or different, the ghosts spring into action. Old wounds reopen, historic resentments are remembered - sometimes going back many generations. Leaders should consider gestures to heal the past before sailing into the future.

Sometimes the threat is real. Now we get to true pain and politics. Change is resisted because it can hurt. When new technologies displace old ones, jobs can be lost; prices can be cut; investments can be wiped out. The best thing leaders can do when the changes they seek pose significant threat is to be honest, transparent, fast, and fair. For example, one big layoff with strong transition assistance is better than successive waves of cuts.

Although leaders can't always make people feel comfortable with change, they can minimize discomfort. Diagnosing the sources of resistance is the first step toward good solutions. And feedback from resistors can even be helpful in improving the process of gaining acceptance for change.

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Leadership is about change, but what is a leader to do when faced with ubiquitous resistance? Resistance to change manifests itself in many ways, from foot-dragging and inertia to petty sabotage to outright rebellions. The best tool for leaders of change is to understand the predictable, universal sources of resistance in each situation and then strategize around them.

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1. Lyubomirsky, S., Sousa, L., & Dickerhoof, R. (2006). The Costs and Beneÿts of Writing, Talking, and Thinking About Life's Triumphs and Defeats. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(4), 692-708. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.4.692

2. Manczak, E., Skerrett, K., Gabriel, L., Ryan, K., & Langenecker, S. (2018). Family Support: A Possible Buffer Against Disruptive Events for Individuals With and Without Remitted Depression. Journal of Family Psychology, 32(7), 926-935. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000451

3. Holahan, C., Moos, R., Holahan, C., Brennan, P., & Schutte, K. (2005). Stress Generation, Avoidance Coping, and Depressive Symptoms: A 10-Year Model. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(4), 658-666. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.73.4.658

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By providing yourself with tools for processing change, you can adapt more easily.

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Support Change Checklist (People Leader)

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Support Change Checklist (People Leader)

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Best Practices for Communication (People Leader)

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Best Practices for Communication (People Leader)

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Why do employees resist change? — Commcoterie

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What is change resistance, why do employees resist change, and what can leaders do about change resistance to ensure that every change is a success?

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How to Create Positive Change in Others: The Pygmalion Effect

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TEDx: What Leaders Need to Know About Change

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TEDx: What Leaders Need to Know About Change

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What leaders need to know about change | Taylor Harrell | TEDxSDSU

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Break Down Change Management into Small Steps

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Break Down Change Management into Small Steps

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New research from leaders at Infosys indicates that across a variety of industries, lasting, long-term change is most effective when it occurs over a series of smaller microchanges. The authors identify three strategies for successful microchange management: Deconstruct big change into small steps, change behavior through small modifications to habits and routines, and continuously measure, learn, and evolve.

Business transformation has traditionally been associated with large, drawn-out initiatives. After the Great Recession, they became smaller, faster, and more focused, yet change management was still executed in a mostly sequential waterfall approach. The breaking point came in March 2020, when Covid-19 provided a global wakeup call that forced all companies to rethink their ability to change - and fast.

Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning's online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Change Management. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

Change may be the only constant in today's organizations. Here's how to lead through it.

Learn More & See All Courses

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Break Down Change Management into Small Steps

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New research from leaders at Infosys indicates that across a variety of industries, lasting, long-term change is most effective when it occurs over a series of smaller microchanges. The authors identify three strategies for successful microchange management: Deconstruct big change into small steps, change behavior through small modifications to habits and routines, and continuously measure, learn, and evolve.

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Beyond Change Management to Conscious Change Leaderhip

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Beyond Change Management to Conscious Change Leaderhip

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Beyond Change Management to Conscious Change Leadership: Uplevel Your Change Capability with Dr. Linda Ackerman Anderson

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Tedx: The Inner Side of Organizational Change

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Tedx: The Inner Side of Organizational Change

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The inner side of Organizational Change: | Thijs Homan | TEDxAmsterdamED

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Change Management Requires a Change Mindset

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Change Management Requires a Change Mindset

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Every organization of every size struggles with change in some way. While midsize companies are no exception, their size offers a competitive advantage. Unlike small companies with limited resources, or large companies saddled by bureaucracy or "this is how we do it" norms, midsize companies are in the sweet spot for rethinking how to relate to change and uncertainty effectively. Helping your team develop and strengthen their change mindset should be a priority. Team discussions about one's orientation to change could unlock hidden superpowers and create new pathways for internal mobility. This article discusses how to integrate scenario mapping into your strategic planning process to boost your "flux capacity" (your tolerance for change) and contribute to the kinds of futures you'd like to see.

Picture yourself as the CEO of a midsize company in 2019 who had a crystal ball and knew that a global pandemic would turn the world upside-down within months. What would you have done differently for your business at that time, given that knowledge?

Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning's online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Change Management. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

Change may be the only constant in today's organizations. Here's how to lead through it.

Learn More & See All Courses

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Change Management Requires a Change Mindset

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Every organization of every size struggles with change in some way. While midsize companies are no exception, their size offers a competitive advantage. Unlike small companies with limited resources, or large companies saddled by bureaucracy or "this is how we do it" norms, midsize companies are in the sweet spot for rethinking how to relate to change and uncertainty effectively.