The Secret of Sustainable Change

Permanent change begins with increasing self-awareness

There are a number of organizational change management models that focus on cognitive approaches, many of which help with creating development plans, processes and strategies. Also, there are those that focus on behavioral approaches, many which incentivize people to act in certain ways. And although many of these approaches work in the short term, creating structural and behavioral changes at a superficial level, most fail in a long term. So the question that begs to be asked is how can organizations deal with their resistance to change while achieving sustainable change?

The answer is to use a more robust approach that does not only focus on the cognitive or behavioral aspects of a person, but rather takes a look at and takes account of the whole person. The Human Element starts with a deeper understanding of a person’s behaviors and looks at their motivations. By tapping into the deeper level of the psyche, this approach enables people to find the root causes of the behaviors that are preventing change.

Here are a few things to consider:

• Change doesn’t last. (Situation)
• Why?
• Because people revert back to the familiar when stressed and either get angry, blame others, feel victimized, or deny the situation. (Behavior)
• Why?
• Because of a fear of being fired, humiliated, ignored or rejected. (Feeling)
• Why?
• (deeper levels of motivation that will drive the feeling that will drive the behavior)

By going to deeper layers of the personality, the actual reasons for being inflexible or defensive in any given situation will be revealed. Changes can only be long lasting when people deal with the underlying reasons for their being resistant.

The Human Element tools and programs are designed to increases self-awareness and help people make clearer and more aware choices in organizations, contributing to sustainable change.