By Scott Patchin
Feb. 3, 2011
It was a new year. Goals were set. There was a new energy in the executive team after two days of strategic planning. The economic outlook was positive, a great speaker on innovation was brought in, and ideas of what was possible filled up a good portion of the conference room walls. The executives couldn’t wait to tell their team of the plans and get people excited about the future. The only tasks left were to communicate the plans, ensure everyone was clear on the goals, and get things moving.
Have you been here before? Energized. Optimistic. Ready to get things started. Then the work starts, the energy goes away, and a couple of months later the team gets back together and wonders why the new ideas aren’t flowing and the key measures are all just average. Talk of accountability starts and the inevitable question is asked, “Do we have the right people on the bus?” The reality is that change threatens everyone at some level. It’s normal to feel stressed, hesitant and fearful. When people are feeling that way in anticipation of change, they don’t think or act normally, and often appear to be acting like they have no brain.
Seth Godin calls it the “lizard brain.” More specifically, it’s the amygdala, a part of the brain that filters information that needs to get to the larger parts of our brain so we can think, reason, recall past experiences, and provide a rational response that contributes to problem-solving. When the amygdala takes over, we’re in flight-or-fight mode and our reactions are rooted in the goals of survival and self-preservation. In Godin’s book
Linchpin, he makes the following observations about the lizard brain (p. 106):
- The lizard brain only wants to eat and be safe.
- The lizard brain cares what everyone else thinks.
- The lizard brain is a source of resistance.
For December 2010, the government reported 9.4% unemployment — or 14.5 million people without jobs — and Gallup reported an additional 9.4% of the work force being part-timers wanting full-time work. That’s almost 30 million people un- or under-employed, with the outlook for 2011 showing improvement, but slow job growth. It’s safe to say that most workers are connected to one of these 30 million people, and managing the growth of your business in this environment creates some unique challenges. In this “new normal,” stress and fear are still at elevated levels, impacting your team’s ability to respond to change.