Many of us accept that the only thing that doesn’t change is change itself. Our world is buffeted on all sides by change … kids grow up, technology abounds, friends move away, the list is endless.
Dan Heath at Fast Company describes a recent experience with subjects who were offered either chocolate chip cookies … or radishes. (If you’ve even been cut from a sports team, you’ll know how the radishes felt!). You can also see a short video there explaining the experiment.They used this experiment to illustrate how exhausting change can be and how these psychological elements become a critical part of a change equation.
Anyone who has had to implement an initiative which required people to permanently change their behavior knows it can be a thankless task. The most well-intentioned person will simply run out of steam.
What has been your experience in trying to implement sustainable change? Would you do it differently if you simply recognized how exhausting it is to create change?