Suppose your organization has an exciting idea for a beneficial change in the community. For example, it’s a way to make solar panels more affordable. Potentially, this would help the area achieve climate change goals, and reduce heating and electric bills for many. Sounds like a win/win. However, the effort doesn’t take. Not many people sign up. What’s going on?
A new book helps to shed light on resistance to change. I recently heard about it in a podcast by “Hidden Brain”. The book is titled The Human Element by Loran Nordgren and David Schonthal.
I got excited about what I learned from the podcast because I have often felt frustrated that wonderful ideas simply failed to catch on, and I couldn’t figure out way.
The authors say that there are two basic reasons new ideas fail to take off. Either there is not enough “fuel” behind the effort, or there is too much “friction” impeding the effort.
The concept of not enough fuel is easy to understand. In other words, there is not enough energy invested in getting the word out. The more interesting ideas are about the frictions that slow or stop the impetus of change. These are based in basic human behavior. And we have all participated, or not, in these frictions! The authors also include examples and ways to overcome or reduce these frictions.
They explain four types of frictions.
- Inertia, does the change seem like too much of a stretch, (humans tend resist what they perceive as big changes)?
- Effort, how much does achieving this change require physically, mentally, or economically?
- Emotion, does making this change elicit any hostile or negative feelings from any in the community?
- Reactance, do people feel pressured to make the change? This can automatically elicit resistance.
I imagine that in the future, these drags on positive societal change efforts could be evaluated and considered before the effort begins. The ideas from The Human Element give me hope. My example of the community that could have reduced costs for solar panels might be a go. I will order this book!