Change: More Often than Not, We Can't

• Published in: Library leadership & management 2010-07, Vol.24 (3), p.98-100
• Main Author: Moran, Robert F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Behavior; Emotions; Libraries; Management of change; Organizational behavior; Organizational culture; Sensitivity
• ISSN: 1945-8851; 1945-886X

When I ask students in a class, "If you found out that you had to change or you would die, would you change?," 90 percent hold their hands up saying, "Yes, of course I would change." I respond, "Nine of ten of you who are holding your hands up are wrong; to the extent you represent people in the United States; 90 percent of you would not change." The research described in this article investigated the responses of seriously ill heart patients regarding the need to change their lifestyles. Ninety percent of those studied did not do so. "If you look at people after coronaryartery bypass grafting two years later, 90% of them have not changed their lifestyle," the interviewed doctor said, continuing: "And that's been studied over and over and over again. And so we're missing some link in there. Even though they know they have a very bad disease and they know they should change their lifestyle, for whatever reason, they can't"3 Our minds do not just have a long list of facts to which we add other facts that we observe or are told. Rather, our ideas are related and organized to help effective thinking. Cognitive researchers refer to these sets of facts as framesmental structures that shape the way we see the world. We may be presented with facts, but for us to make sense of them, they have to fit the mental structures already there. For example, if someone who has worked for years in a hierarchical organization is told by new management that his or her ideas are welcome and will be taken seriously, this objective fact will not fit that person's perception of how the workplace functions; the statement that his or her ideas will be listened to will be rejected. How many new ideas ought to be expected from such people? They won't change just because they were presented with this fact-everyone's ideas will be accepted. First to change, one must be able to change one's frames for the new circumstance, and this takes time, often months.