Models of Change That Help Us Understand Our Reactions

1. Models of Change That Help Us Understand Our Reactions Rosie Barry Organizational Effectiveness, OHR barry023@umn.edu, 612-626-1004

2. Agenda • Traditional perspectives of change • New ways to understand and manage change, using neuroscience • What can we each do?

3. VISION

4. Activity • Discuss with a partner(s) a change that you’ve gone through. Does this model describe what you experienced? • Can this model apply to positive and negative changes?

5. What new research is showing us • The parts of the brain used for survival are the same parts that light up under inter-personal stress • Our social motivation is ruled by the ideas of • minimizing threat • maximizing reward

6. Why do we care? Knowing what drives threat responses and reward responses means we can adjust our behavior • We can set up our interactions to minimize the sense of threat • We can think about adjusting our interactions to make them rewarding

7. We Are All Individuals • What we think creates our brain pathways. • The things we think about most have deeper brain pathways. • We can choose to think positive things as well and build new circuits.

8. The SCARF Model A way to understand social brain stimuli and the responses that are triggered Status Certainty Autonomy Relatedness Fairness Rock, David, “Managing with the Brain in Mind” Strategy & Business 56 (2009): 2-10

9. Status • Our importance, relative to others • Pecking order, sense of seniority

10. Certainty • The ability to anticipate or predict

11. Autonomy • Sense of control and/or the freedom to choose

12. Relatedness • Sense of belonging to a social group or work team

13. Fairness • Feeling free from bias, dishonesty, and injustice • An individual’s sense of fairness is linked to personal values

14. What Can We Do? • Knowing what drives threat responses and reward responses means we can adjust our own behavior.

15. Impacting Status • Reduce the threat by getting information • Offer to participate in planning • Help to create a safe environment for learning • Provide regular positive feedback • Acknowledge the positives

16. Impacting Certainty • Clarify roles and responsibilities • Create a plan, short-term if needed • Set small goals that can be achieved and adjusted over time • Limit the number of things on which to focus • Consider, and discuss, multiple realities

17. Impacting Autonomy • Identify what I can control • Ask for clear parameters for decision-making • Break large challenges into small steps • Consider possible options • Identify my own and other talents within our team

18. Impacting Relatedness • Find ways to reach out to new people • Encourage casual discussions • Create and use “buddy” or mentoring systems • Demonstrate trustworthiness

19. Impacting Fairness • Help to create clear expectations and ground rules • Look at things from multiple perspectives • Increase involvement and communication about significant things

20. Activity • Discuss with a partner(s) a change that you’ve experienced. How does the SCARF model describe people’s reactions? • Which of the SCARF characteristics is probably more important to you and is more likely to be triggered during change?

21. We Can Make Choices Attention Appraisal Situation Response

22. We Can Understand Our Habits • Habits are hard to break • Thought patterns can be changed • Paying attention to things can rewire habits • Focus on what’s right, not what’s wrong • Work at regulating your thinking

23. We Can Build Resilience • Work at building resilience; have it ready when you have challenges • It’s about energy • Exercise, yoga or meditation • Stop ruminating – this builds negative wiring. Schedule a time each day for it and get over it

24. More Things We Can Do • Practice giving yourself six seconds • Focus on the positive; maintain a hopeful outlook • Consider play; think of problems as challenges • Study what works for you – modes of learning • Make connections with positive others • Celebrate accomplishments • Practice choice -- choose what you pay attention to and opt for positive reactions; this is regulation

25. Activity • With a partner(s) discuss what you might want to start, stop or continue doing as you develop more resilience with change.

26. Questions?