It’s a psychological dynamic called a “competing commitment,” and until managers understand how it works and the ways to overcome it, they can’t do a thing about change-resistant employees.
THE IDEA IN BRIEF
Tearing out your managerial hair over employees who just won’t change—especially the ones who are clearly smart, skilled, and deeply committed to your company and your plans for improvement? Before you throw up your hands in frustration, listen to recent psychological research: These otherwise valued employees aren’t purposefully subversive or resistant. Instead, they may be unwittingly caught in a competing commitment —a subconscious, hidden goal that conflicts with their stated commitments. For example: A project leader dragging his feet has an unrecognized competing commitment to avoid tougher assignments that may come his way if he delivers too successfully on the current project. Competing commitments make people personally immune to change. Worse, they can undermine your best employees’—and your company’s—success. If the thought of tackling these hidden commitments strikes you as a psychological quagmire, you’re not alone. However, you can help employees uncover and move beyond their competing commitments—without having to “put them on the couch.” But take care: You’ll be challenging employees’ deepest psychological foundations and questioning their longest-held beliefs. Tread delicately and sympathetically through this potentially painful process. Why bother, you ask? Consider the rewards: You help talented employees become much more effective and make far more significant contributions to your company. And, you discover what’s really going on when people who seem genuinely committed to change dig in their heels. Still think that grappling with employees’ psychology shouldn’t be part of your job? The truth is, all managers are psychologists—whether they want to be or not. Helping people overcome their limitations—including the messy, human contradictions that trouble us all—lies at the very heart of effective leadership. THE IDEA AT WORK Use these steps to break through an employee’s immunity to change: DIAGNOSE the COMPETING COMMITMENT Take two to three hours to explore these questions with the employee: “What would you like to see changed at work, so you could be more effective, or so work would be more satisfying?” Responses are usually complaints—e.g., Tom, a manager, grumbled, “My subordinates keep me out of the loop.” “What commitment does your complaint imply?” Complaints indicate what people care about most—e.g., Tom revealed, “I believe in open, candid communication.” “What are you doing, or not doing, to keep your commitment from being more fully realized?” Tom admitted, “When people bring bad news, I tend to shoot the messenger.” “Imagine doing the opposite of the undermining behaviour. Do you feel any discomfort, worry, or vague fear?” Tom imagined listening calmly and openly to bad news and concluded, “I’m afraid I’ll hear about a problem I can’t fix.” “By engaging in this undermining behaviour, what worrisome outcome are you committed to preventing?” The answer is the competing commitment—what causes them to dig in their heels against change. Tom conceded, “I’m committed to not learning about problems I can’t fix.” IDENTIFY the BIG ASSUMPTION This is the worldview that colours everything we see and that generates our competing commitment. People often form big assumptions early in life and then seldom, if ever, examine them. They’re woven into the very fabric of our lives. But only by bringing them into the light can people finally challenge their deepest beliefs and recognize why they’re engaging in seemingly contradictory behaviour. To identify the big assumption, guide an employee through this exercise: Create a sentence stem that inverts the competing commitment, then “fill in the blank.” Tom turned his competing commitment to not hearing about problems he couldn’t fix into this big assumption: “I assume that if I did hear about problems I can’t fix, people would discover I’m not qualified to do the job.” QUESTION the BIG ASSUMPTION Then help your employee simply observe or analyze himself in the context of his big assumption—but without yet changing his thinking or behavior. For example, ask: • “What does and doesn’t happen because you believe the big assumption is true?” • “What would cause you to question the validity of the big assumption?” • “How and when did the big assumption develop?” TEST—and CONSIDER REPLACING—the BIG ASSUMPTION By analyzing the circumstances leading up to and reinforcing their big assumptions, employees empower themselves to test those assumptions. They can now carefully and safely experiment with behaving differently than they usually do. After running several such tests, employees may feel ready to reevaluate the big assumption itself—and possibly even replace it with a new worldview that more accurately reflects their abilities. At the very least, they’ll eventually find more effective ways to support their competing commitment without sabotaging other commitments. They achieve ever-greater accomplishments—and your organization benefits by finally gaining greater access to their talents.
