By Nick Tasler
During nearly every discussion about organizational change, someone makes the obvious assertion that “change is hard”.
The problem with this attitude is that it equates “hard” with “failure”, and, in doing so, hobbles change initiatives, which have higher success rates than we think.
Bias toward failure is wired into our brains. We often assume that failure is more likely than success and, as a result, treat good outcomes as flukes and bad ones as proof that change is difficult.
With organizational change initiatives, these negative biases can create a toxic self-fulfilling prophecy. If leaders and employees believe that success is unlikely, they will regard a momentary setback as the beginning of the end. Suddenly, employees disengage, and the initiative starts to fall apart.
The myth that change initiatives usually fail is widespread—most experts, for example, state that 70 percent of change efforts collapse. However, research has found no evidence to support this.
Yes, change requires significant effort. But this doesn’t negate the fact that most people who commit to a new initiative eventually succeed.
Leaders must be aware that their teams enter change situations with a bias against success. To address this problem, they simply need to flip the script. Every time they have the impulse to say that change is hard, they should remind their employees of another accurate assertion instead: Adaptation is the rule of human existence, not the exception.
Nick Tasler is an organizational psychologist, author and speaker.