What makes behaviour change so hard?

If you are committed to Leadership Development as an L&D or HR leader, one question that should have disturbed you is this:

What makes change in behaviour so hard?

A little background first…

Companies invest tens and thousands of dollars on learning with all the right intentions. The sponsors, the facilitators, L&D, the participants, their managers – everyone gets invested into it. They all feel committed because the need for the investment would have been uncovered very scientifically. Leaders would have spoken, surveys administered, dozens of focus groups, interviews, tons of data – everything analysed, and all the wisdom seeming to point in one direction.

If the company wants to go that way (a new strategy), people should learn how to take that path, which makes the learning intervention necessary.

Yet, after implementation, few leaders are able to make sustainable, long-term changes to their behaviour. It doesn’t mean the initiative wasn’t effective—they all acknowledge it, even try for some time, but few stick to the new, exciting path of change that was opened up for them.

Of course, with a lot of measurements available today, it is possible to show ROI on leadership development in different ways. Assessments, 360-degree surveys, performance data and so on. Yet, proving that investments in learning were effective remain the biggest challenge for an L&D leader. There are always enough nay-sayers waiting to poke holes in the L&D leader’s carefully constructed, passionate submission. After all, linking learning to results is a dilemma that’s as old as organisations.

Having said that, many organisations are able to find a way to maximise the investment by focusing on two areas; one at a macro, systemic level and the other at a micro/individual level. Everything in between is usually addressed quite satisfactorily by a competent learning team.

So, what are the not-so-obvious areas?

An evolutionary perspective

Let's take a view from a larger perspective: our evolution as a species.

The Jethro Tull song, ‘Skating away on the thin ice of a new day’ probably captures the essence of this perspective. With its tongue-in-cheek lyrics alluding to the threats of an impending ice age and the harsh questions of survival it would pose, Ian Anderson, the singer and writer opens thus:

Meanwhile back in the year one,

When you belonged to no one

You didn’t stand a chance son

If your pants were undone…

Our entire evolution as a species was shaped around survival, hinging on two pivotal questions:

1. What do we need to thrive in our environment?

From being hunter-gatherers fighting for life in harsh conditions, to discovering agriculture and then the industrialised world, our species was constantly challenged by the world it was placed in. The ongoing conversation with our world shaped our biology and then, our social and interpersonal behaviour of which leadership in organisations is a relatively new, effervescent fragment. We are continuing to evolve based on the demands of today’s workplace – our contemporary ground for hunting, gathering and communion.

2. How does our body support this change?

Our behavioural evolution was preceded by our biological evolution. From turning into two-legged animals to developing language for communication, our body and physiology had to co-operate with the demands of the environment for our species to thrive. And it has done so far. However, it needs to be recognized that changes in the body take time.

Now, lets apply this to learning in an organisation.

The organisational context

The environment is the organisational context the leaders play in.

You could call this the ground their leadership is expected to thrive in and make a difference to.

It includes the organisation’s culture and values, systems, technology and process. It might sound like everything, but the differentiating factor of a successful intervention is identifying the parameters in this universe which could have the most impact on learning transfer, particularly as it relates to leadership development.

The guiding principle here of course, is that the context or environment is always more powerful than the willpower of the individuals involved. Therefore, any behavioural change, regardless of how meaningful it is to the individual cannot be sustained in an environment that does not support it. There is only so much one can swim against the tide.

However, if the factors that will affect the behaviour most strongly are identified beforehand, systemic measures can be taken to either remove the obstacles or reorient the learning. If the leader’s immediate environment can be tweaked to make the learning a necessity, it greatly increases the chances of making it happen.

Again, most experienced Learning and HR leaders know this and take conscious action to address it. However, even they operate in the same context and are sometimes limited by how much influence they can have on an institutionalised system.

When done right, it provides participants opportunities to practice what they have learnt in a safe space, get feedback for it and work with an environment that reinforces the need for the new behaviour/habit.

The second factor is at the level of the individual and relates to the person’s body.

Engaging the whole body

Who we are is not just a map we carry in our brain, but an embodied experience that pervades our entire nervous system. The complex web of our behaviour has its roots and triggers deeply entrenched in our neurobiology and ignoring the somatic element of transformation can limit the range of new actions possible for the individual.

Today, advancements in neuroscience have literally ‘shown’ us what happens to the brain during behaviour change and how the brain keeps defaulting to its established hard-wired patterns of behaviour, particularly under stress. Developing new habits or behaviours means creating new neural pathways, which require significant amounts of attention, repetition and feedback. This is where the context or environment can either be helpful or detrimental.

The body knows what the mind is still trying to understand

As leaders are practicing new behaviours and new ‘ways of being’, they also need to develop an acute sensitivity towards their body and the active role it plays in shaping their behaviour. The body with its myriad spectrum of sensations offers a whole new world of information that needs to be understood and included in the path of changing our behaviour. This is where a coach trained to work with the body can help in the process of integration and embedding the new behaviours as part of the ‘new ground’ for the person.

Without this critical link, leaders can be left with great ideas of leadership that they can acknowledge and talk about, but not necessarily practice with a grounded sense of integrity.

A new understanding

Many organisations today deploy multiple levels of interventions to increase the impact of leadership development. A conscious effort to address the strongest environmental factors that could influence behaviour change and at the other end, including the body in the conversation can create significantly more impact.

Impact that is not just about playing games with words and numbers, but one that sheds new light on the persistent questions around behaviour change.