Neuroscience and Organizational Change
Advanced computer analysis of neural connections and the application of theoretical work linking the brain and the mind give the organizational leader lots to think about. Beyond carrot and stick behaviorism, fMRI’s, PET scans and EEG’s reveal new rules about change and why it hurts when someone moves your cheese.
As reported in The Neuroscience of Leadership, organizational change is unexpectedly difficult because it provokes sensations of physiological discomfort. In the brain, change is pain. First, anything “new” draws on working memory and the elegant but colicky and easily fatigued prefrontal cortex. Work that has become hardwired in the jolly mindless hum of the basal ganglia is suddenly pushed to the difficult top of consciousness. It’s a feeling that’s uncomfortable, and naturally avoided.
Second, the orbital frontal cortex has evolved to alert us of anything “new” with an error signal. This cortex is closely connected to the brain’s fear circuitry, which resides in the amygdala. Move my cheese and I’m going to have a fear response. Taken together, the brains sends out powerful messages that something is wrong, and the capacity for higher thought is decreased. “Change itself amplifies stress and discomfort, and managers tend to underestimate the challenges inherent in implementation.” Change, even good J-curve change, is initially pain.