Seven Approaches to Change – Part I

I am often asked, “Which approach to change do you prefer?” As the question suggests, there are several general approaches to change: behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, humanistic, personality types, learning, and strategic.

While it’s fine to prefer one approach, it is a mistake to disregard the insights from the other approaches. Organizational change is complex because people are complex. We need all the insights we can get.

The behavioral approach focuses on how one person can change another’s behavior by using rewards and punishments. This is my least favorite approach (because it tends to be manipulative and focuses on extrinsic rewards), but there some valuable insights here. Rewards are motivating; punishments are de-motivating.

I had lunch today with Phil Bowers, one of my consulting friends who specializes in first-time manager training. Our conversation turned to the use of rewards in organizations. Based on our experience, we were able to list countless examples of how organizations have used rewards to reinforce behavior—both positive and negative behavior.

One of the leading behavioral psychologists, John Watson said, “Whatever behavior you reward, you get more of.” The implications are powerful for individual behavior and organizational change. If you reward positive behaviors, you’ll get more positive behaviors. But, equally true, if you reward bad behaviors (even without intending to), you get more bad behaviors. What does your organization reward?

The cognitive approach focuses on changing thinking instead of changing behavior. I tend to favor this approach, possibly because I had the opportunity in graduate school to “study under” Albert Ellis (the leading cognitive psychologist).

Cognitivists believe behavior and emotions are the result of thinking. For permanent change, changing behavior is not sufficient; we must change how we think about the issue or situation. Stated simply, “How a person thinks determines how he/she feels or acts.”

The cognitive approach has the long-term advantage of reducing management time spent managing workers. If workers think differently (and receive proper training) about their roles, they can become more self-managing. This will free-up a manager’s time for tasks over than managing, or “micro-managing,” others.

The cognitive approach includes techniques such as reframing, pattern breaking, detachment, and rational analysis. All of these techniques are easy-to-learn and easy-to-apply.

In the next installment of this article, we will look at the psychodynamic, humanistic, and personality type approaches.

To learn more about strategies and tools for effective change read my book, Strategic Organizational Change (Second Edition), available at www.amazon.com or on my website www.mikebeitler.com. Please feel free to send me your questions, comments, and suggestions.