Change. Gaurav Gupta. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Gaurav Gupta
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
Серия:
Жанр произведения: Управление, подбор персонала
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9781119815884
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research stream can be huge, as we will demonstrate in our discussion of strategy, digital transformation, restructuring, cultural change, M&A, scaled Agile, and broad social initiatives.

      With our focus on prospering in a more rapidly changing and complex world, the most useful picture that emerges from this research is not the way that most people think about human nature. In particular, the vast majority of people tend to seriously underestimate the power of our built-in survival instinct and how it can inadvertently overwhelm our capacity to swiftly see opportunities, innovate, adapt, lead, and change for the better.

      Humans have within them something we call the Survive Channel. It has the biological equivalent of a radar system that is constantly on the lookout for threats. At first, a very long time ago, these were probably mostly physical threats. Today, the same basic hardware is programmed by society and personal experiences to be alert to career, economic, psychological, and other perceived hazards to our well-being.

      When our brain detects what is perceived to be a danger, a lightning-quick, subconscious sequence of actions occurs. First, our amygdala instantly sends a signal to our brain's “control center” (the hypothalamus). This signal activates the mechanism (our sympathetic nervous system) that is responsible for responding to potentially dangerous situations. Epinephrine (better known as adrenaline) flows through our bodies, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, accelerating breathing to increase oxygen to the blood stream, and releasing blood sugar and fats to prepare us to confront or escape the problem (“fight or flight”). When this happens, our minds tend to focus like a laser on the perceived threat. We use our spiked energy and total focus to try to move quickly to eliminate the hazard. When we are successful, the perceived problem is resolved, the chemicals stop flowing, we calm down, and the body resets to where it was before the “attack.”

      More frequently today, Survive is dealing with more nuanced complexity, and reflects the needs and requirements of life in the more complicated reality of the twenty-first century. A colleague alerts us that one of our biggest customers is irate because of a missing shipment. Our radar reports a threat alert, chemicals flow, our heartbeat increases, our minds forget about other issues as we immediately go to a conference call, virtual meeting, or into a conference room. Six of us gather to review what we know about the problem and plot our options for remedying the missed shipment and helping the unhappy client. Each of us accepts some area of responsibility, completes our tasks, and, after a tense 24 hours, we are told the problem has been solved. The customer seems to be impressed by our fast attention to the issue.

      Today, when we are not successful at eliminating some problem, typically because the threats are hugely complex and there is no practical way to avoid or stop them quickly, we can end up in a heightened survival state for a considerable period of time. Our bodies release additional chemicals (cortisol and other hormones), which keep us on high alert. But this intensity drains energy and makes us feel increasingly stressed. Even worse, if we are hit by multiple threats at once, or threats we cannot resolve, we can go into an overheated Survive state. In this condition, we become so tired and distracted that we are unable to deal well with even the problems for which the Survive Channel was designed. We might end up basically running in circles, withdrawing, or freezing. All this tends to overwhelm our capacity to see opportunities, to step back and creatively contemplate, much less to actually change our behavior to quickly capitalize on any opportunities. And how can we rally others to seize opportunity when we can barely function ourselves?

      In today's rapidly changing world, with more threats and opportunities, it is not at all unusual for people to have an overheated Survive response, either because of the sheer volume of perceived threats or because we live in an environment with all sorts of barriers that stop us from eliminating even single threats.

      None of these issues stopped the executive committee from doing what it reluctantly had concluded was needed to restore competitiveness. Costs were cut, a few facilities were shut down, and people were laid off. It was not draconian, but it was unpleasant for all involved.

      Two years later, the restructuring was officially “complete” and was by some standards a success. Costs had been significantly cut where demand was not needed. But productivity slips dampened the savings.

      The CEO took an early retirement. His replacement launched a number of new cost-cutting initiatives and tried to push hard from the top on the product development process. But none of this created the magnitude of needed results. A flawed understanding of what created the firm's problems inevitably led to flawed solutions for fixing them. It always does.

      And there are solutions. But to find them you need to understand both the Survive Channel and its newer, less dominant companion, the Thrive Channel.

An illustration of showing that when hardwiring works well.

      A basic reality today is that the way to create enough smart change at a fast enough speed is both to prevent the Survive Channel from overheating and to activate the Thrive Channel across a sufficient number of people. For many reasons, organizations struggle with this challenge.