Andersen: People instinctively ask three specific questions when facing change
Erika Andersen · Why "Difficult, Costly, and Weird" Is Wired Into Your Brain · May 10, 2022 · at 14:30
Erika Andersen, leadership consultant and author, breaks down the core psychological information needs humans experience when subjected to organizational or personal change.
0:00 / 0:30exact quote · 30.3s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“So what we found as we did this research is when a change comes at us, Almost without exception, we want to know three things. We want to know, what does this mean for me? What am I personally going to have to do differently? That's thing one. Thing two is, why is this happening? Because we have this strong preference for the status quo, we need a pretty good reason to change, so why is this happening? And then the third thing we want to know is what will it look like when it's changed? What's the post change future?”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Erika Andersen
Andersen: People Instinctively View Change as Difficult, Costly, and Weird
“Cause one of the things that we found out in our research about change is that most people want to change comes at them. They see it negatively. They see it as dangerous. So our, Opening mindset about change is usually that the change is going to be difficult …”
Andersen: Adaptable People Reframe Change as Doable, Rewarding, and Normal
“So what we've learned over the years is that people who are good at change, they're able to change the way they think about change. So that rather than seeing a change initially as difficult, costly, and weird, they immediately started thinking about how it co…”
Andersen: Leaders process change for months but expect instant employee adaptation.
“Cause lots of times what happens is leaders, they find out about a change. They think about it for weeks or months. They go through their own arc where they come to see it as doable, rewarding, normal, and then they turn to their folks. And explain the change …”
Andersen: Leaders must tell employees what is not changing during transitions
“The second change lever is clarify and reinforce priorities because lots of times when one thing is changing, people assume that everything is changing. So it's really helpful to them to hear what's not changing.”
Andersen: Rapid organizational change requires more collaboration, not unilateral action
“So it's even more important to stay in touch and be collaborative when you're trying to change quickly. And it's counterintuitive because when you're trying to change quickly, most of our impulse is just to go and just do it and not tell anybody, right? So it'…”