PART I
Powerful Beliefs
YOUR BELIEFS ABOUT CHANGE have a lot of impact on what you do. Therefore, beliefs are often more important in change than techniques. Techniques work when you think to use them. They operate situation by situation. Beliefs, on the other hand, influence your entire life and choices—what you see and don’t see. They affect whether you even think to or want to use “techniques.”
Stan, a team leader, knew three great techniques for negotiating with people who disagreed with him. But he believed that people 6 should obey authority. So even though he knew the techniques, he didn’t recognize many situations where he could use them.
A Recent History of Beliefs
Science in the latter part of the 1900s transformed our view of the world. Since the 17th century, OUR belief was that the universe could be understood and controlled by our rational mind. Scientists used to say to themselves, “Once we discover the rules, we can use them to determine our future, to shape what people do, to harness nature for ourselves.” This became the hope for organizations. “Understand how humans behave, figure out how to manage that behavior and optimize it. Then design organizations that are highly efficient and predictable. Create the perfect structure, define jobs clearly, with small jobs fitting under the larger jobs in the organization chart. Then, put rewards and consequences in place to keep things under control.” This is what management scientists used to say to themselves.
The view as we go into the 21st century is that nature, along with everything in it, isn’t as predictable in its behavior as we thought. The dream of perfect control (a kind of stability) is a pipe dream. We can’t determine what will happen in the future. We can influence it—but not in a way that gives us 100% certainty that what we want will happen. In fact, sometimes our attempts to influence things have consequences we never intended. For example:
Executives dramatically reduce staff. This has an immediate positive impact on bottom-line performance because costs are less. But, because critical skills are lost, future innovation suffers. And lower morale reduces what other staff members contribute.
Staff members take a “that’s not my job” view when customers call with problems. In the short run, job boundaries are protected. In the long run, dissatisfied customers go to competitors. Business declines and staffing and promotion opportunities shrink.
If we dig deeply enough, we’ll see the underlying belief in these two examples is flawed. It is the belief that we can control change by just solving the problem at hand.7
It’s time to examine this and other beliefs related to change— because we live in very complex times where even the very notion of change is changing. That’s the purpose of Part I. Use it to help you examine your beliefs and, if necessary, to modify them.
So what do you believe about change? As you read the sections that follow, reach deep into yourself to find the beliefs that really influence what you do. As you do this, know that there are two types of beliefs:
SAY beliefs: the beliefs you TALK about having
DO beliefs: the beliefs that actually DRIVE YOUR BEHAVIOR
As you think about your beliefs, notice that the beliefs you need today are not the “opposite” of yesterday’s guiding principles. Most of the time, they include an old belief and put it into a new perspective.
Before you go on, I suggest that you take the “What Is Your Empowering Belief Quotient?” self-test at the end of Part I. It will help you surface your beliefs and relate your own thoughts to the chapters that follow.
