A few weeks ago, I was interacting with coaches and athletes at a sports training facility. A junior psychologist there, who I supervise, told me: “Sahen, it seems like things are in a… rut.” I could sense that he was being overly polite. So I prodded him on and he eventually said what I apprehended: “The people here are just going through a cycle where they just like… I don’t know…” I finished his sentence: “Bas chal raha hai.”
There are two levels to this. Sport does not always require dramatic change. Although some commentators will have you believe that ‘going back to the drawing board’ is essential every time, it is not. Sport requires consistency and often that involves doing the boring things repetitively over a period of time. At the second level, active effort is a must to establish structures for growth through consistency.
I was interacting with the junior psychologist at a high-performance centre. While even there every day need not be a ‘push till you break’ day, they need to be sufficiently challenging. But the coaches were not putting the structures in place for that to happen and the athletes were disengaging. This happens at other places, too. The teachers are not interesting enough and students stop caring. The boss is not a good leader so the employees start going through the motions.
Laziness or resistance?
Anything that requires you to improve requires hard work and a belief that the change will be for the better Shutterstock
Physics teaches us about inertia — the property of things to continue in its existing state unless changed by an external force. Hard to believe, but people have inertia, too. Anything that requires you to improve requires hard work and a belief that the change will be for the better. Without them, there is an ingrained psychological resistance to change. Knowingly or unknowingly, people directly or indirectly engage in paradoxical opposing behaviours in a push and pull process. Simply put, people will do the opposite of what will lead to change, often by pushing away the things that could help and pulling all the barriers to themselves.
Think about it. When you ask someone to change, they either push you away or come up with excuses on why it would not be possible to change. This is the case for big changes as well as small ones. Change management expert Rick Maurer outlines a three-phase change resistance structure.
1. “I don’t get it” - People often do not understand why the change is needed or what the change is about. If a person is not convinced about the details of a change, the person will not change.
2. “I don’t like it” - Humans are not the most naturally logical creatures. Driven by personal agendas and selfish desires, people often manufacture reasons for not liking something. If they do not like a change, it very quickly becomes something more personal.
3. “I don’t like you” - Change processes are often killed because a person who is supposed to make the change does not like the person advocating the change. Sometimes it is because they feel they should be given the responsibility of being the change-maker, and having someone else in charge means that they do not want to contribute anything to the cause.
When it seems that people are not changing because of laziness, the actual reasons are often more complicated. They are often not changing because they are actively resisting change. In social situations, there is another layer. If the change requires some sort of social cooperation, people find it extremely difficult to look beyond their own interests. Only sometimes are people actually lazy and think that change will lead to extra work and will fight to keep the status quo, however morally wrong that might be.
Break down resistance or erode it?
Anyone handling change must be aware that too many differences or changes are distracting and confusing Shutterstock
By definition, all change is a departure from what used to be. It happens all the time, in all places, from small cities to big empires. Since change brings something different, we also need to consider how different? We are creatures of habit who thrive on stable routines and typically perceive big changes as an ask to jump out of an aeroplane without knowing that the parachute will definitely work. For engaging with people to initiate change, there is an entire field of study and practice called systematic behaviour change.
One key awareness that anyone handling change must have is that too many differences or changes are distracting and confusing. To initiate change, we must ‘smuggle in’ the big changes using smaller ones in order to break down resistance. All change must be personally beneficial, socially desirable and morally acceptable. Otherwise, people are likely to resist. But the underlying truth is, change also needs to be financially doable and administratively viable. For all these to come together, a group of people need to share a vision and then slowly bring others on board.
The fact of the matter is that you will not succeed in implementing 100 per cent of all the changes proposed. But if you can hit 60 per cent — this goes for changes in your personal life as well — then it will create a ripple effect to take you through to 70-80 per cent. If you can repeat this process in small things a few times, the overall change outcome will be a big one. As Winston Churchill said: “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
Dr Sahen Gupta is a Kolkata-born, India- and UK-based psychologist who divides his time between mental health support and high-performance coaching. As the founder of Discovery Sport & Performance Lab, he works not only with Olympians and other top-level sportspersons, but also with CEOs and other professionals striving for excellence. Dr Gupta’s mission is to simplify complexities of the mind into actionable and simple ‘doables’ that allow individuals to be mentally fit.