I went on to explain when people like what they are doing, and are comfortable with it, they usually fight to keep their routines in place. They already went through the commitment process to get to where they are and they’re not anxious to change their routines and have to commit to new procedures. This is particularly true of people who had a personal hand in creating the processes they use. People are naturally loyal to objects of their own design. They have a hard time relinquishing their commitment and shifting their loyalty to someone else’s change.
“When you create something new, more often than not, you have to destroy something old, but human beings will not easily destroy that which they have created. Once people have created their personal routines, it will be harder for them to accept imposed change. That’s why it’s important to get employees involved prior to implementing a change. People are more inclined to accept changes they helped design.”
Paul suggested people also will resist any change that implies the current way of doing things is wrong or inadequate. People are proud of their effort and they often take it as a personal affront when someone suggests they need to change.
“If a person develops his routine and someone wants to change it, that’s like saying what he’s been doing is wrong or stupid,” Paul said. “It just dawned on me how arrogant it must appear when management, particularly new management, comes in and starts changing work processes. It’s like saying: ‘You’ve been doing it all wrong in the past, and aren’t you glad I’m finally here with all my brilliance to keep you from being stupid?’”
“That’s why it’s so important to get conscious about what happens to human beings internally during the commitment process,” I said, attempting to anchor an earlier point I’d made. “The Ladder of Commitment consciously shows the internal, subconscious issues people tussle with at the CLOSED stage before they can climb higher up the Ladder to COMMITMENT.”
I reemphasized to Paul that one of the major reasons why people resist change is because it makes them feel uncomfortable. But I wanted him to understand another, even more powerful, subconscious concern that keeps people from willingly accepting change.
“In addition to the discomfort entailed in every change, there is another super-subtle impact hidden within every change,” I declared. “Every change to the routine automatically makes a person feel incompetent, even if just for a small moment, until she learns the new routine. Whereas, before the change the employee could perform the task competently without thinking, a change requires her to learn the new routine. It demands conscious thought and creates a sudden awareness that the person can no longer do a task that she once could do so easily.”
I wanted to give Paul an example to help him understand how a change makes a person incompetent.
“Paul, in your job as the general manager of your company, do you have certain forms that you have to fill out regularly, perhaps daily?”
“Yes. A few.”
“When you fill out those forms, do you have to read them before you fill them out? Each time you use the forms do you have to read where it says ‘name’ before filling in the name, read the word ‘address’ before writing down the address, and so forth?” I asked.
“Of course not. I just start filling them out.”
“That’s because you already know what the form says and you’re competent at filling it out,” I declared. “It’s unconscious competence. You don’t even think about what you’re doing. You just start doing it. In fact, filling out that form is so routine, I’ll bet you can reach for the form and start filling it out without even thinking about it.”
“Yes, that’s true,” Paul confirmed.
“But what happens if someone changes the form?”
“I have to read it,” Paul said.
“Yes. For just a brief moment you can’t do something you used to do without thinking. You’re incompetent. And that’s irritating, isn’t it? It’s particularly irritating to be incompetent on something as trivial as filling out a form. Even minor changes, such as changing a form, can cause irritation at work because it makes people incompetent and forces them to think, even if it’s just for a few seconds.”
“That’s interesting,” Paul said, going inside himself and reflecting back to changes made at his company. “I’ve been shocked that minor changes on the assembly line cause a major ruckus from the workers. To me they are no big deal, but they always seem to be a major irritant to the employees. I guess that’s why.”
“Let’s explore that even further,” I continued. “What happens if they not only change the form, but they also move it to a new location? Now you have to both learn how to fill out the new form and remember where it is located. You have to retrain your mind and your body to retrieve the form from the new location and fill it out the new way.
“Like I said before, even if the new task takes only a few short minutes to learn, people hate being incompetent for even a few seconds as they struggle to learn the new way. They don’t like having to think about something they previously could do without thinking. Minor adjustments can be major irritations to some people.”
I told Paul, if he really wanted to see how people react to a simple change, he should go home and move the silverware drawer in the kitchen and see what happens.
“No thanks!” Paul shot back with a look of horror on his face. “I already know what will happen.” He didn’t want to incur the wrath of his family.
“And you know what’s really funny?” I added. “Moving the silverware drawer would irritate you, too, even though you’re the one who moved it, because you know you’re going to keep going back to the old location!”
I pointed out that if short-term incompetence is so abhorrent, longer-term incompetence is almost intolerable; particularly to adults. This is why adults are often hesitant to learn new things. An adult, for example, may wish to learn how to play the piano, yet shy away from attempting to do so out of fear of appearing incompetent while learning the new skill. Unconsciously, adults dread going through the beginner-level piano books. Adults want to be fully competent instantaneously, expecting to play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto #1 immediately or within an unreasonably short period of time. Many of the people who say: “I’ve always wanted to . . . .,” never do, because they cannot bear being incompetent at the beginning of the journey as they learn the new skill.
“Paul, if small changes, like moving the location of an object or changing a form are so irritating, think of the emotional impact of large scale organizational change,” I stressed. “Sometimes I think managers have no inkling of just how intrinsically difficult it is for people to alter their present course or perspective. Failure on management’s part to understand the commitment process on major organizational changes is bad enough, but managers need to realize employees will become annoyed at even minor changes. That’s why you need to fully grasp what happens to people internally before they will climb the Ladder of Commitment.”
I switched to a personal example to better anchor my point. I told him the transition from single-life to married-life is an example of how difficult it can be to adjust to change. Marriage requires a major modification to one’s routine. Two single people bring to the marriage their set ways of doing things and then have to meld their individual routines into one. Each has to consciously adjust to the other person’s habits, customs and personal schedule. They have to give and take, compromise and collaborate, until they develop new routines that are comfortable and acceptable to both parties. The high divorce rate may merely be a result of couples who could not adjust to the cumulative changes the marriage brought into their lives.
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