Why Most Change Management Fails, And What Great Leaders Do Differently with Britt Andreatta

About This Episode 

In this episode of The Future of Work® Podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Britt Andreatta—renowned leadership expert, neuroscientist, and CEO of Brain Aware Training—about why most change initiatives fail, and how leaders can succeed by understanding the brain. Drawing from decades of research and her best-selling “Wired” book series, Britt explains the biological resistance to change, the rise of change fatigue post-pandemic, and what truly empowers employees. Whether you’re an executive, a middle manager, or an emerging leader, this episode delivers science-backed strategies for leading with clarity, empathy, and sustainable momentum in a time of non-stop disruption. 

About Dr. Britt Andreatta 

Dr. Britt Andreatta is an internationally recognized thought leader who uses her background in leadership, neuroscience, psychology, and education to create science-based solutions for modern workplace challenges. She is the CEO of Brain Aware Training and former CLO for Lynda.com (LinkedIn Learning). With over 10 million views of her online courses and several best-selling books—including Wired to Grow, Wired to Resist, Wired to Connect, and Wired to Become—Britt was named a Top 10 Influencer in Learning, a Top 20 Influencer for Leadership Development, and the 2024 ATD Thought Leader Award recipient. 

What You’ll Learn 

• Why burnout and change fatigue are undermining workplace transformation 
• The 4 biggest drivers of organizational change in today’s world 
• How to lead cross-generational and cross-cultural teams through change 
• Neuroscience insights on why humans biologically resist change 
• The hidden role of habit formation and the habenula in change adoption 
• Why middle managers hold the key to successful transformation 
• Why over-communication is essential in high-change environments 
• What the best leaders do differently when managing uncertainty 
• Why we need an “air traffic controller” for change initiatives 
• How to empower employees at every level of the organization 

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Transcript

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:00:00,000 ] Humans are biologically wired to resist change. And those that are good at it will help people adapt and respond to change, and they’ll do it in a timely way. And those who are not good at it will fall behind their competitors or they’ll lose their customers or they’ll lose their employees if they’re not managing change well. So change management is a core skill that every leader needs today, and yet most don’t have it.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:00:29,700 ] Dr. Britt, welcome. Welcome to the Future of Work podcast. Really excited to have you here. And gosh, what an amazing background you have. I’m going to learn so much today. I’m really excited. Well,

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:00:43,090 ] Thank you, Frank. And please just call me Brit.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:00:46,280 ] Well, Can I just call you doctor instead?

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:00:49,020 ] You can if you want to.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:00:51,040 ] Britt is perfect. Britt is perfect.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:00:54,500 ] We’re talking about change management. today and you’ve done an amazing amount of research on the topic. I’ve been involved in a couple of large organizations, and we came to the conclusion ourselves. I was over at Deloitte for a while. Change management is probably the most difficult thing you have to face inside of operating a growing company.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:01:16,320 ] What are the biggest drivers of change? What are the things that cause people to have to go through this process?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:01:23,820 ] and use it as part of their growth of their companies overall, especially as they face the new future that we’re all facing in the workplace.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:01:31,540 ] yes and uh one of the things i wanted to focus in on was what is changing about what causes change And so as we look from now to the future, there’s kind of four big areas. one of course is technology no one’s surprised by that but the rise of ai and Just the amount of disruption it’s created in the last two years has been phenomenal.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:01:53,950 ] Sucked the air right out of the room, doesn’t it?

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:01:56,250 ] Yeah.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:01:57,500 ] So technology, because of how technology exponentially moves forward, it’s always going to be driving change if for no reason other than every system you use. is upgrading and shifting. as new technology arises and that creates a domino effect.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:02:13,800 ] Another big pressure of change is the environment and climate change that’s happening. Every business and industry I work with is dealing with the reality of climate change on the ground. Um, everything from ski resorts that can no longer count on snow and the fact that

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:02:32,609 ] entire resorts are not going to be able to host winter events for for certain parts of the world. The Olympic Committee is even narrowing down on which places can even host the Winter Olympics anymore. to ocean acidification and how that changes the fishing industry and the hospitality industry. Um, to even simple things like sea rise. I know several corporations that built their headquarters in Boston.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:03:01,300 ] you know the harbor rises and they’re having to move their headquarters after investing all that money there because it’s It’s not contained anymore. Same with Miami. Climate change is driving um all kinds of changes, real changes in organizations, and that’s only going to get exponentially bigger over the next couple decades.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:03:22,730 ] Another driver of change has been around since the beginning of time, which is as your organization grows and becomes successful, you’re naturally going to be adding customers and people to your organizational chart. And that takes us through some natural phases of scaling. that drive change as you respond to managing this business as it grows. And so there’s kind of a predictable pattern to how these phases unfold. But a lot of executives don’t have that information. And so they’re kind of in reactive mode. They’re constantly reacting to the shift. in what’s happening in their organization.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:04:00,410 ] And I’m a big, big proponent. And if we can learn this information up front, we can be proactive and ahead of the curve.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:04:07,330 ] And then finally, there’s Uh. Can I ask a question on that?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:04:15,280 ] Today, all companies are international.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:04:18,860 ] They have an international supplier or an international customer. Somehow, everybody seems to be doing crossing borders and that sort of thing. How do cultural issues come into part of this change management?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:04:32,220 ] And add on top of that. In today’s world, We’re dealing oftentimes with five different generations in the workforce in the same company.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:04:44,320 ] overall so How are those two things, maybe independently or together? impacting us as we go forward.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:04:52,350 ] Well, absolutely. As companies become international, and you’re right, there’s hardly a business now, even your small mom and pop. business on the corner that isn’t at least getting their supplies from some kind of international supplier. and we can kind of see it playing out now right um geopolitical issues economic issues we are incredibly linked now. I think we saw that during the pandemic. You know, the pandemic really showed us how absolutely linked we are by air travel and internet communication and supply chains and you know every dollar is connected to every other form of currency um so yeah i mean absolutely having an eye toward what is happening in the world and how does that influence the market is something that people are going to use to drive change in their business as they make decisions about how to stay successful. and could also catch them off guard if they’re not taking a long enough or wide enough view. So I absolutely agree.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:05:55,300 ] Generations, there’s always been multiple generations in the workplace since the beginning of work. There’s always been. younger. but who those generations are and what distinguishes a millennial from a gen z or from a boomer you know, 100 years from now. excellent leaders are going to have to be in touch with what makes these generations different in terms of their values. their approach to work. and what kind of conflicts naturally exist between these types. of you know these generational shifts. There are some cultural differences to how the generation shows up in different parts of the world. So of course, cultural sensitivity and awareness is going to be really important.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:06:39,610 ] No, I think so. And to the generational issue.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:06:43,930 ] As I look back, to when I started in business, you’ve basically had three generations in business because they weren’t as well defined.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:06:54,320 ] You have the people that were entering a company, the middle management of the company, then the senior management of the company. Now the generations are much more defined and much more specific in what they want. I’m a Gen Z and I want this. I’m a boomer and I want that. They’re calling out for things.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:07:13,500 ] And homogenizing that entire structure, to me, seems that it Makes it kind of vanilla. It’s not real interesting. So you have to pay real specific attention. to those individual needs and then learn to make them

Frank Cottle

[ 00:07:30,150 ] to choreograph them, I guess I’ll say, so that they’ll come out well.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:07:34,340 ] You’re actually talking about three different things. So one is stage of career, right? Is someone early career, mid-career, late career? just by where you are in your stage of life and how much you’ve moved up that influences leadership level and what kinds of things. then generations are very, there’s a lot of body of research around generations and they’re marked by their birth year.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:07:58,550 ] And it’s a roughly a 20 year span. And so what happens during the formative years really impacts the personality of that age group. um And then you’re also talking about leadership level, an executive senior level versus a frontline employee. you can have a gen z executive now you know who created a startup and are working at the executive level and they’re only 25 and you can also have a boomer who’s decided, you know, is still working even well into their 70s or even 80s because of economic reasons or because they find a sense of purpose. and they can be everything from frontline to very advanced in that career level. So I want people to distinguish those three things because they influence each other, but they’re actually really different.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:08:48,450 ] Well, no, I think that’s right. Your comment in particular about you can have a Gen Z working on an executive level or you can have a boomer working on a middle management or a line level. That’s definitely the case. How does technology in particular?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:09:06,150 ] Um, influence the change or the pace of change i guess change management has been around since the first change. Okay, but

Frank Cottle

[ 00:09:17,750 ] The pace at which we have to manage it now has accelerated dramatically. What kind of fatigue, organizational energy does that take?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:09:29,240 ] awareness at every level that we’re going to have change.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:09:32,970 ] Thank you. What goes into this? the whole process

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:09:37,120 ] Well, we know with technology that there are some

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:09:42,110 ] formulas for how much you know the chip can hold and it’s been doubling exponentially every so many years and so

Frank Cottle

[ 00:09:49,910 ] More is law.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:09:51,110 ] Yeah, exactly. So as that has played out.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:09:55,830 ] What it has meant was that even when you embrace technology, that technology is naturally going to change. It’s going to get faster, smaller, better. And as that has happened, it shifted us from desktops to laptops and laptops to tablets and tablets to smartphones. And then within those, you’re going to have. new upgrade systems new apps you know if you decided to write an app today you have to have at least 16 different versions that work for all the various phones that are out there and the different operating systems so technology because it has grown so quickly and changed so quickly That influences everything from your email system that you use to your payroll system that you use. and any one of those systems is going to get a software upgrade or new features released.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:10:47,370 ] at any point in time. So what it means is we all have technology embedded. in our work in so many ways that it drives just constant upgrades and they don’t all upgrade on the same day, right? It’s all happening at various points in time. So and I think we can see when new technology hits the system like AI has. it’s been a huge scramble and i mean we’re talking right now in the news about this ai bubble so much has been invested in it and yet it’s not yet yielding revenue Um, that It’s really hard, I think, as a leader to sometimes know what to invest in. Some executives a couple of years ago were investing in the metaverse and the metaverse is already dead. It’s been replaced by AI.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:11:34,420 ] Don’t tell the people over at Meta that it’s dead.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:11:37,780 ] They’ve acknowledged it themselves. They have pulled out a lot of resources from it.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:11:41,480 ] Yeah, it’s funny. When we talk about, I’m kind of going down a little rabbit hole here with AI for a second, but when we talk about AI bubble. We talked about. the smartphone bubble. We talked about the PC bubble. We talked about the mini computer bubble. I keep going back and back to, you know. the first giant disc.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:05,350 ] tape drives so there’s always a bubble because there’s always over investment in something new

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:12,440 ] where I think or finding

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:17,260 ] returns on new technology is in the

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:23,470 ] the ubiquitous application of it and the speed at which that occurs.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:28,870 ] Um, the company that develop the technology may not get an immediate return on their investment.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:36,100 ] but the individual user.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:38,850 ] oftentimes does and then it grows into supporting the best development companies, not just necessarily the first.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:49,079 ] IBM is a good example of that with PCs. You know, they were the first big one. but they didn’t turn out to be the best as a result of which.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:12:59,430 ] there now.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:00,840 ] non-player you know they you know good company but they don’t play in that product anymore so we go through all this kind of process

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:09,390 ] I think companies today through the daily use of small AI products that are interwoven within other things.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:19,540 ] seamlessly and you don’t even notice the change necessarily of how a lot of them are working. but they are just faster, better.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:28,140 ] um so i think that that’s something that creeps up on us i don’t know from an investment bubble because i read the other day 40 over 30 of all the money in the stock market today is in ai related companies and that’s a bad thing and and i’m thinking yeah you can see a risk factor there

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:46,500 ] But if you don’t make that investment, do you progress?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:50,970 ] How do you? How do you?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:53,720 ] Push forward.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:55,560 ] and especially on a global basis against

Frank Cottle

[ 00:13:59,070 ] Other investors, it might be governments or companies, countries who are investing to take the same market share that. that you’re hoping to.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:14:10,660 ] Well, I mean, this is where I was focusing on researching change, right? Because in order to be successful, every company must get good at change management. That means that they’re able to read the market and identify which changes they need to make. Then they need to be able to articulate those changes to their people and their customers. And they need to be able to prepare for their inevitable resistance because humans are biologically wired to resist change. And those that are good at it will help people adapt and respond to change, and they’ll do it in a timely way. And those who are not good at it will fall behind their competitors or they’ll lose their customers or they’ll lose their employees if they’re. not managing change well. So change management is a core skill that every leader needs today. And yet most don’t have it. You can graduate with an MBA and not get any training in change management. Organizations launch change all the time without providing the right kind of change management training or support.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:15:14,400 ] so you and i are on the same page change and leading change is a critical skill now more than ever

Frank Cottle

[ 00:15:20,700 ] Well, you know

Frank Cottle

[ 00:15:23,410 ] change is really nothing but I’m. you’ll correct me probably, but nothing but adaptability.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:15:30,690 ] is just recognizing what’s out there.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:15:33,530 ] recognizing that you have to adapt to it. Is that any different than has ever gone on? Maybe the pace is different now, but.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:15:42,260 ] Didn’t the buggy people have to get used to the automobile?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:15:45,860 ] This has been inevitable since the very first.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:15:51,420 ] Don’t age person created an axe instead of a club. you know,

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:15:57,420 ] true but the pace is very different you know one of the studies that gartner did found a couple things that the average employee now experiences between 10 and 13 organizational wide changes per year That’s up from two in 2016.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:16:12,660 ] Explain what those would be.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:16:14,800 ] So changing an email client, taking on a new sales package. a new policy, a new location and anything that’s going to affect every employee in that organization, organizational-wide change, enterprise-wide change. So the average employee is now experiencing between 10 and 13 of those per year. And in 2016, it was two.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:16:37,830 ] Okay, that’s what I was going to ask, because what’s the difference over the last decade? And you’re saying that it’s a 500% increase or so.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:16:46,110 ] Yeah, it’s significant. In the middle of that, we had the pandemic, which was a globally traumatic event. It pushed a lot of employees into diagnosable burnout, which is a medical condition. And so.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:17:02,490 ] Gartner found that people’s ability to respond to change is 50% of pre pandemic levels. I’m seeing that with all the executive teams I’m working with, that people are fatigued and burned out and not responding as quickly to change now as they need to be. And as a result, employees willingness to embrace change. has dropped from 74% in 2016

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:17:29,970 ] to 38% now.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:17:33,050 ] Well, then how do we progress if we’re going back? What you’re saying is we’re going backwards.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:17:38,280 ] More change required, less change. um

Frank Cottle

[ 00:17:43,950 ] implemented. are we actually going backwards as a workplace society, if I could call it that? Um, is fatigue.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:17:57,310 ] holding us back.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:17:59,080 ] to that degree, to where we’re going backwards?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:18:02,120 ] Because that’s the numbers that you just gave would indicate.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:18:04,660 ] Yeah, I mean, I think the point here is that

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:18:09,580 ] The pandemic was more traumatic than people realized and folks have not fully healed or recovered from it. and executives that are trying to push a lot of change right now are meeting this meeting this block.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:18:24,040 ] So it’s something that everyone’s going to need to be addressing. They need to lean into understanding change fatigue and burnout and being mindful of helping employees through that. Because if you keep pushing change, if you’re frustrated and just keep pushing change, you’re just going to get failed change, right? The change initiative you’ve spent so much money on. is not going to be embraced by your employees or your customers. And so we’re in this weird moment of time right now that we kind of need to recover and get through. And it’s unfortunate that AI kind of hit at the same time as people were kind of coming out of the pandemic. I think that once we can kind of get through this wonky place in time we’re in, Um.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:19:07,630 ] things will settle down a little bit, but Every industry I’m working with right now, everyone’s seeing it. And the phrase that some executives have said, it’s like people are walking through molasses. I need them to go faster. but they cannot go faster. There’s just some limits to human biology. And it’s maxed out. But executives who are doing it well are communicating differently about change. They’re bringing very intentional change management techniques and research to how they lead. and they’re supporting their people. And organizations that are doing that are seeing very different results. They’re seeing a lot of adaptability.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:19:45,810 ] Let’s talk about some of those. Let’s talk about specifics.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:19:49,610 ] change that’s been around forever i’ll get real stoic for a minute and say you can’t chop stop it It is there, so you have to address it. you know, whether it’s internal something that you drive internally or something that happens to you externally. The world is going to change every day.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:20:07,820 ] in some way. You know, so. what are those specific things you say some executives this some executives that Let’s focus on the good ones.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:20:18,910 ] Okay, because those are the ones who want to emulate.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:20:21,780 ] What specific things are they doing?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:20:25,860 ] They’re specific. We can say, well, they’re listening. That’s not specific enough. um uh you know Drive down into.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:20:34,300 ] actionable items that people can consider.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:20:37,270 ] yes and in my book wired to resist i have several chapters for each level of audience i’ve got stuff for when you’re on the employee level and you’re on the receiving end I’ve got stuff for the middle manager who’s often responsible for driving change but didn’t get to design it or control it. And I have. stuff for executives who really need to approach how they design and

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:20:59,660 ] launch change in their organizations differently? Which level of audience do you want to speak about?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:21:04,760 ] Well, I think actually I like the middle manager in a lot of respects because they didn’t design the change. They didn’t necessarily make this. They could have had some input for sure, for sure. polls, direct meetings, etc. especially in smaller to mid-sized companies. but That’s the group that has to.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:21:25,450 ] force the change through. yeah that’s the group if someone’s walking in molasses

Frank Cottle

[ 00:21:32,380 ] That’s the group you have to look at and say, why? And what do I do about it?

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:21:37,040 ] Absolutely. So what I do with managers, I first kind of explain the biological response humans have to change because when they understand it, they realize, oh, it’s my job to counterbalance it. It’s my job to. to provide better information. So some important things are understanding that just announcing change is going to activate the survival centers of the brain. human bodies see change as potentially dangerous unless we get more information. So it’s really about sharing the why. being very transparent up front about what’s happening when. And not only the why for the organization, but you got to make it the what’s in it for me, right? The what’s in it for me at the employee level or the customer level even. Sure. um Another thing is to be really clear, you know, we talk about change as a journey, like you’re literally taking these people on a journey. So they need to know when does it start when does it end are there steep places on this hike is it where is it going to be hard where are we going to be sprinting so that they can manage their energy so they know where they are in this process

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:22:46,400 ] Another skill that managers need is emotional intelligence. being able to deal with kind of the grumbling that people naturally have around change. They do that initially, and then it gets better as they move through this biological process.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:23:02,720 ] Also, you know, using effort rewarding effort and progress. Oftentimes we keep coding change as a failure because no change ever unfolds the way it’s supposed to. Every change is going to be. behind schedule or over budget or both right it’s going to go off the rails the old quote is

Frank Cottle

[ 00:23:21,310 ] All strategy changes once you see the eyes of the enemy.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:23:24,960 ] Exactly.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:23:26,610 ] So we talk about the role that the habenula plays, which is brain structure that is designed to help us not repeat failure. And most leaders go into a staff meeting and just start talking about what’s wrong. Okay, you guys, we’re over budget. We’re behind schedule. What are we going to do? And the habinula hears, okay, everything about that change is failing. And it’s designed to make us resist future change. But if a leader walks in and first says, hey, everyone high fives all around. Great job. You did X, Y, Z. Awesome. Now we’re behind schedule and over budget. What are we going to do to get back on track? Now you’ve given the brain the reward for the effort and the progress, and now we can focus on what needs to shift. managers are accidentally really activating more resistance and change fatigue. by how they lead the change and how they talk about it with their employees.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:24:21,380 ] Why does that happen naturally, do you think? Is it their own fear of failure?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:24:27,909 ] Why does a manager naturally go to that?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:24:32,390 ] approach as opposed to the more positive approach, do you believe?

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:24:36,540 ] Personally, I’ve had lots of experience with it just being a lack of information. People haven’t studied how the human body responds to change. But when they understand, oh, there’s certain things that get activated, the survival centers, this habenula, there’s the basal ganglia and the antirheinal cortex. Once you understand how we’re wired to move through change. Now managers instinctually start to do it differently just by having that little bit of new information. So I think it’s really about educating managers, same with senior leaders, when they understand what’s going to get launched in their organization, they can then design it differently and support it to go much faster. um And then the last thing I kind of argue for is that every organization needs an air traffic controller of change. Because as you grow, every department is going to be pushing out change. Facilities is going to have some good ideas for change. HR is, marketing will.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:25:36,300 ] you know, legal well, and everyone’s doing a good job. But what happens is if there’s no air traffic controller, teams can get hit with too many changes at one time because those entities were not mapping what’s hitting when. So having a position who has its eye on the bigger picture of what’s unfolding when can just do wonders because oftentimes a change fails, not because it wasn’t great. It was a great change, but because it hit at a time when that same team was holding four other changes. or they had just gotten through something that was particularly exhausting and had no time to recover, so they couldn’t embrace the new change.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:26:18,130 ] No, I think at that point, of an air traffic controller type person. I know within our own company, We do a lot of projects. And. We have to have technical project managers that take the priorities for each project and get them in the correct order so that we don’t. Screw things up. Yeah. I think that’s On a broader scale, it’s that prioritization.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:26:45,180 ] I know in our model, again, we all put in what we call tickets to get something done. And then we have somebody who’s the master of the tickets. make sure that that they’re in the right order and the right right people that are available right resources are available

Frank Cottle

[ 00:27:00,840 ] Change is really just a project.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:27:03,860 ] um It really is when it breaks right down to it. We’re going to install new software. What’s involved?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:27:11,280 ] Right. Then you just have to look at it. But if you’re doing 10 at once. That is a problem because you can’t keep up with 10 different things at once.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:27:21,160 ] and overzealous executives.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:27:24,580 ] part. to say, no, we have to back off on some of this stuff so we have enough bandwidth in our brains and in our bodies to deal with it.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:27:34,490 ] Well, one of the things that I found is that

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:27:37,930 ] executives are approaching it as project management and just looking at like it’s a structural thing we’re going to execute here’s the deadlines and the milestones

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:27:46,300 ] But if you don’t pay attention to the human response to it and where you’re likely to get complaining and resistance.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:27:52,540 ] You know, on average it takes 40 to 50 repetitions to form a new habit.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:27:57,620 ] And change is usually asking people to develop not only a new habit that’s uncomfortable and awkward at first, but they probably have an old habit that’s well-grooved and comfortable, and they are going to naturally go back to that old behavior. unless you offer training and practice so they convert to the new one. That simple change right there makes such a huge difference. And it’s why change fails is that the employees never made the shift, they kept doing it the old way.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:28:25,920 ] Well, you know, it’s funny you mentioned the pandemic. And then you mentioned habits. and time and repetition and those sorts of things. uh during the pandemic uh whether you want to call it a one and a half or a three year cycle

Frank Cottle

[ 00:28:40,500 ] people had enough time to change their habits.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:28:44,470 ] And it’s one of the reasons. uh why

Frank Cottle

[ 00:28:48,870 ] to the office, returning back to the office is having such a struggle because people change their habits. and the habit they found out that they wanted to get rid of, like it was a nasty smoking or drinking habit or something. was the commute.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:29:03,100 ] I don’t want to commute anymore. And you’re going to have to reconvince me that my job is worth that.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:29:09,880 ] you know, structure that one. major change in work structure itself.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:29:16,630 ] uh many ways is overarching to all the little changes and such things as emails and Bye overall is how are we going to organize ourselves as a company to the burrito.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:29:30,020 ] grandest level, the largest level.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:29:32,850 ] You know, emails are easy by comparison to that.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:29:36,510 ] No, no. It really is. Absolutely.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:29:39,940 ] Except if your team is totally fatigued and then you launch the email change. Oh, yeah, you can compound that. Right.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:29:48,240 ] compound problems for sure. I think. If I were to take something from what you’ve said, it is that compounding issue. and that timing issue and the awareness issue of executives.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:30:01,470 ] always wanted to push. or forward. for a lot of reasons.

SPEAKER_3

[ 00:30:05,370 ] Mm hmm.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:30:06,160 ] the shareholders, etc. A lot of good reasons, valid reasons. provide job security on a competitive basis. And that’s, I’ve always thought that. the highest level of responsibility of any person who’s in an executive position is to make sure that the people that work for them are secure.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:30:25,350 ] So sometimes that means pushing harder and faster, and sometimes it means doing new things. to deliver that security.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:30:34,380 ] Yeah.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:30:35,200 ] But but the.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:30:38,160 ] the awareness of the human factor. Um, Aren’t we as

Frank Cottle

[ 00:30:46,310 ] human beings um supposed to be the most adaptable animal that there is shouldn’t we be able to

Frank Cottle

[ 00:30:54,149 ] recognize in advance that there’s a lot of change going on in the world. I mean, you can’t read the headlines, you can’t do anything without hearing about. Everything that’s new, all the time. Shouldn’t we, do we become numb to that or shouldn’t we be attuned to? the flow that we’re going to have to get used to in order to survive.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:31:18,030 ] So. in a position or maybe even as a species.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:31:23,310 ] I mean, you know, humans are incredibly adaptive and we do change, right? The problem is the way change gets framed or communicated or supported or not. can make that change much more threatening and frustrating and difficult for people to get on board with.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:31:45,520 ] I’m not arguing that. We stop change. We just have to get better at it, right? Oh.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:31:51,360 ] You can argue it, but we can’t do it.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:31:54,090 ] Right. So the worst thing an executive can do is mention that change is coming without saying anything else. Now what happens to every employee is they go into fear. Their survival mechanism takes over by no choice of their own. And they’re going to be wired to think through worst case scenarios. Oh, this could mean layoffs. I’m not going to get a promotion, et cetera. We’re wired to focus on our survival because our paycheck is how we buy food, water and shelter. We’re also wired for our sense of belonging. So if there’s a change, maybe I won’t get to work with my colleagues that I really love and respect.

SPEAKER_3

[ 00:32:28,030 ] Mm-hmm.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:32:29,020 ] So we activate all this biology that we don’t necessarily need to be stirring up. And then that’s when the rumor mill takes off and people get resistant and you start to see. some of the stuff is just The change itself might have been fine, but the way it was communicated, the way it was launched.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:32:47,010 ] went against human biology instead of going with it. And so I really like giving people this new information because We’ve worked with organizations that after we’ve done our work with them. they are moving faster performance goes up productivity goes up change resistance goes way down and they’re moving much more quickly and everyone’s feeling good about it because they now have a shared language and approach to change.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:33:12,830 ] Well, I’ve got one final question. Empowerment.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:33:17,560 ] How’s it?

Frank Cottle

[ 00:33:18,770 ] one of the most Out. is empowerment.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:33:22,860 ] Thank you. vital tool to change management.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:33:26,800 ] Or is organization of the change itself more important than the empowerment?

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:33:33,400 ] Well, it’s both. I mean, empowerment. by definition means that the people who have to live the change are invited in to help design it or their input is sought because they would know the impact greater. I can’t tell you how many changes occur at the top, and by the time they get launched, the frontline people are like, if you just asked us, we could have told you this wasn’t going to work, right? So empowerment happens at different levels. One is to invite them early when change is being thought about rather than decided and discussed and planned behind closed doors and then announced. right? But even when we announce change, giving managers and teams the tools they need to empower themselves to be successful. So many changes launch without any kind of training or support. And then we wonder why people didn’t make the shift, right? They didn’t get the information. Um, and one of the studies that i saw was really quite shocking which was they did a study about

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:34:34,860 ] who in the organization knew what changes were happening and why. And it was only 68% of the top leaders knew what changes were happening and why. They were all focused on their narrow part. And because it was only 68%, then only 40% of managers knew what was happening and why. Or sorry, 53% of managers. And then that trickles down to 40% of employees.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:34:57,860 ] So then you’ve got your employees and they’re being asked to change, but they don’t really know what’s being asked of them. So how can they bring their best ideas? How can they lean in? How can they support the organization? So a lot of it is really about cascading information better. and empowering. every level of your organization to participate as opposed to just receive it and have to deal with it.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:35:25,180 ] Boy, you’ve left me in a conundrum. I’m trying to figure out all sorts of things now that I had been thinking about but not thinking about.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:35:33,470 ] more diligently enough. I like your last comment about.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:35:40,279 ] communications up and down the road, and it reminds me of an old movie called Cool Hand Luke. from that was well i guess we just have a failure to communicate

Frank Cottle

[ 00:35:50,680 ] And I think that failure communications.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:35:56,890 ] If you do fail to communicate, how can you possibly expect to succeed at change, to succeed at anything? So having an understanding of your team.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:36:07,200 ] letting them know why you want to go somewhere, not just where you want to go. those things and the timeliness of it so you’re not

Frank Cottle

[ 00:36:15,470 ] packing things in. too tightly to avoid fatigue.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:36:20,290 ] to rely upon the adaptability of your team itself, but not over rely on it.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:36:27,180 ] those are all things that you’ve really brought forward, and I thank you for it.

Dr. Britt Andreatta

[ 00:36:31,010 ] Thank you. It’s been lovely having this discussion with you.

Frank Cottle

[ 00:36:34,590 ] Thank you, Britt. Bye

SPEAKER_2

[ 00:36:35,390 ]-bye.