1. Lesson 9: Understanding Fear of Change
Coaching
Lesson 9: Understanding Fear of Change

2. 3 Steps to Powerful Interactions Coaching
Step 1: Be Present to Coach
Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
In order to “connect” with our coachees, it is helpful for coaches to understand individuals’ fear of change and constructive ways of navigating that fear as well as what motivates people (and then trial and error learn what motivates the person you’re coaching).

3. Discussion/Reflection:
Why is any kind of major change hard? (personal or professional)

4. Why is Change Hard?
Many resist change because they aren’t sure what it will involve and what it will “look like” so they aren’t really sure what to do.
Change is very hard to do without motivation but most initiatives don’t adequately motivate those involved to embrace the change.
Many involved have a hard time seeing the good things about a new way of doing things or why the new way is better than the old way. 3

5. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
All change efforts usually have one thing in common: “For anything to change, someone has to start acting differently.”
But the question is always: “Can you get people to start behaving in a new way?”
Have you had thoughts or even worries as a Coach about being able to “get people to start behaving in new ways?”

6. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
“In our lives, we embrace lots of big changes babies, moves, marriages, new homes and new technologies and new job duties.” Chip and Dan Heath
So that means that it is quite possible for people to change.

7. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
Each of us has two parts to us:
We have the emotional side
and the rational side
(the elephant)
(the rider)
Who ultimately has the power to “take control?”

8. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
The Rider appears in control, but the Elephant is much bigger, stronger, and has more endurance.
“Anytime the six-ton Elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, the Rider is going to lose. He’s completely overmatched.”

9. Rogue Elephant Tramples 15 to Death in India
© Provided by AFP 8/9/ Elephants kill roughly 60 people every year in India's forested eastern state of Jharkhand
"Villagers are living in fear, especially the Paharia tribe that lives on the upper hillier regions where the elephant roams. Something must be done."
“The environment ministry estimates a person dies every day in India in clashes with these endangered, jungle-dwelling animals -- the vast majority crushed by elephants.”
In our Rider / Elephant metaphor, what would something like this be symbolic of?

10. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
Our emotions can overwhelm our rational thought and “trash the village.”
But relying solely on rational behavior can “overanalyze and over-think things.”
Have you found this to be true? How so?

11. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
The elephant most of the times seems to disagree with the rider making it very difficult for the rider to go in the correct path.
Consider a person who wants to wake up at 5:45 a.m. to workout before work but the other side of us when the alarm clock goes off doesn’t like waking up to plain darkness in the morning and just wants to snoozes for a few more minutes. That’s an example of your heart and your mind having a disagreement.

12. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
When we are making decisions we're often torn between our rational, logical reasons and our emotional, intuitive feelings.
Tell the Rider what to do, provide a good argument and the Rider will do it. The Elephant, on the other hand, represents our emotions, our gut response and may not “buy” the argument.

13. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
It is important to note that things are not always as they seem.
What looks like laziness is often exhaustion when the Elephant and Rider are on two different pages.
Trying to push the Elephant by persuasion exhausts the Rider (mind).
Dieting example:
When dieting, if a person works hard at meal planning, meal prepping, and staying away from fattening foods because he/she is on a diet, the mind will get exhausted and it no longer wants to fight the temptation any longer – so, the dieter gives in.
The Elephant will usually win over the Rider.

14. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
And, what looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.
“If the Rider isn’t sure exactly what direction to go, he tends to lead himself in circles.”
To “switch” or change practice, we have to tune into both sides of our mind – The Rider and The Elephant and understand these facets of those we coach.
To “prepare a path” we have to DIRECT the Rider (clarity/facts) and MOTIVATE (support, encourage) the Elephant.

15. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
And, what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.
Case study: Researchers gave free popcorn to movie goers in large and extra large containers (both too big to finish). The popcorn had been popped five days earlier and was quite stale.
The goal? To see if people given larger buckets ate more (buckets weighed before distribution and after the movie when the moviegoer had finished).
People with the larger containers ate more popcorn.

16. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
Case study: The study was repeated in different cities and with different genres of movies and the results were always the same:
People eat more when you give them a bigger container. Period.
Now, imagine someone showed you the data from the popcorn study but didn’t mention bucket sizes. You might conclude that some people are reasonable snackers and others are big gluttons.
A public health expert might get worried about the gluttons and decide “we need to motivate these people to adopt healthier snacking behaviors and educate the public about the health hazards of eating so much!”
See how easy it would be to turn an easy change problem (shrinking buckets) into a hard change problem (convincing people to think and behave differently)?
And that is the first surprise about change: What looks like a “people problem” is often a situation problem.

17. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
So how does the rider work with the elephant to move it along the path?
“If the Rider can direct the Elephant down a well prepared Path then there is a good chance for change.”
What do you think “the Path” represents?

18. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
So how does the rider move the elephant along the path?
Direct the Rider
Motivate the Elephant
Shape the Path
Effective change processes manage
both aspects — direct the rider and motivate the elephant. Then, when they’re “on the same page,” shape the path they will take.

19. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
1. Direct the Rider
= Script the critical moves
The rider needs crystal-clear directions and help finding “bright spots” rather than a problem-focused orientation.
You want to show him exactly where to go, how to act, and what destination to pursue.

20. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
The Rider part of our minds has many strengths. “The Rider is a thinker and a planner and can plot a course for a better future.”
But the Rider has a terrible weakness- the tendency to spin his wheels because the Rider loves to contemplate and analyze, and, making matters worse, his analysis is almost always directed at problems rather than at bright spots.
The Rider will spin his wheels indefinitely unless he’s given clear direction.

21. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
2. Motivate the Elephant
= Take away the fear by shrinking the change into small, manageable steps so the Elephant doesn’t get spooked
“Find the feeling.”
Behavior change happens mostly by speaking to people’s feelings.
Engage people’s emotional side, provide motivation.

22. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
The Elephant has enormous strengths: Love, compassion, sympathy, and loyalty – the ability to stand up for what is right. To reach a goal requires the energy and drive of the Elephant.
But the Elephant has some serious weaknesses – they’re skittish and can be lazy, unwilling to make short-term sacrifices for long-term payoffs.
The Elephant’s hunger for instant gratification is the opposite of the Rider’s ability to think long-term.

23. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
If you want to change things, you’ve got to appeal to both. The Rider provides planning and direction and the Elephant provides the energy.
If you reach the Riders of your team but not the Elephants, team members will have understanding without motivation. If you reach the Elephants and not their Riders, they’ll have passion without direction.
A reluctant Elephant and a wheel-spinning Rider can ensure that nothing changes.

24. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
3. Shape the Path
= Build a habit. Good habits/practices are behavioral “autopilots” (Rider doesn’t have to take charge)
Behavior is contagious because people have a natural tendency to want to fit in. “Positive peer pressure” helps people move along the path.
Remember: What looks like a “people problem” is often a situation problem (including the surrounding environment). When you shape the path, change is more likely to happen.
The situation is “the path.”

25. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
More on Shaping the Path:
Facilitating change often requires a change in the environment – even small tweaks can assist in forming habits (why teachers use cubbies for young students and have “centers” for various materials).
But there’s a mental component to shaping habits: action triggers
Just thinking about changing (losing weight, for example) won’t change behavior unless you actually mentally formulate action steps or “action triggers” by thinking of food changes and make a plan to pick up healthier items at the store, set a time to exercise, etc.

26. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
Most people think that change happens in this order: ANALYZE  THINK  CHANGE
But big change situations don’t work like that. In most change situations, the parameters aren’t well understood, and the future is unclear. Because of the uncertainty that change brings, The Elephant is reluctant to move onto the path. Analytical arguments won’t overcome this reluctance.

27. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip and Dan Heath
In successful change efforts, the sequence of change is: SEE  FEEL  CHANGE
Individuals are presented with evidence that makes them feel something. It might be a disturbing look at a problem or a hopeful glimpse of a solution, or a sobering reflection of current habits but it is something that impacts the participant on an emotional level – it speaks to the Elephant.

28. Discussion/Reflection:
How do the principles of change in Switch align with either the 5 Principles of Coaching with Powerful Interactions or the 3 Steps of a Powerful Interaction?
In our overview of Switch, what stood out to you and why?

29. Putting It into Practice:
Coaches’ Homework for Lesson 9:
Consider the professionals on your team that you coach (or may be coaching) – your colleagues.
What are some ways you can break down something huge like “practice change to implement DEC Recommended Practices” into smaller bits that won’t frighten the Elephant?
What are some ways you can provide crystal clear directions to a colleague you are coaching (or may one day coach) to support his/her Rider?
Coaches will post their answers in the blog space on the team’s site: prior to Lesson 10 to document their work and to be accountable to the team!