O'Connor Psychology and sustainability ~ NZPsS 1007

WHAT CAN WE DO
WHEN THE SCIENCE SAYS "X“
AND PEOPLE STILL SAY "WHY?"

Frank O'Connor
Consulting Director, Moa Resources
Wellington, New Zealand
franko@moa.net.nz

©O’Connor I/O PsycSoc Conf 2003 RAP p 1
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WHAT DO WE KNOW
We have learned a lot about social change
• in organisations large or small, formal or not
• knowing what needs to be done does not determine success

The origin of success lies in confident action

Confidence follows leadership
• a social (not textual) phenomenon
• frequently reinforcing the small actions
• individual and small group behaviour add up

We don’t make the change as a whole

FURTHER EVIDENCE SHOWS …

Major change runs in the face of what we believe
• challenge to prevailing belief systems may include those that are
seen to underpin 'science‘

We do change ingrained habits
• using 'emotional' information as well as thoughts
• accepting that, sometimes, leaps of faith are required and made

The process of engaging the not-yet-committed can
be predictable, intuitive and simple …
and inadequately informed


BESTSELLING JOHN KOTTER 1947 –

“There are four reasons that certain people are
resisting change”
Kotter and Schlesinger, 1979
• Parochial self-interest
– some people are concerned with how change may affect their own
interests, rather than considering the effects for the whole
• Misunderstanding
– communication problems; inadequate information
• Low tolerance to change
– certain people are very keen on security and stability in their work
• Different assessments of the situation
– some employees may disagree on the reasons for the change and
on the advantages and disadvantages of the change process


SIX APPROACHES TO COMBAT
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE - 1

• Education and Communication – people lack information
– Educate people beforehand. Up-front communication reduces
unfounded rumours concerning the change
• Participation and Involvement – we don’t have all we need
planned yet and others have considerable power to resist
– Involve employees in the change effort - they are more likely to buy
in and help
• Facilitation and Support - resistance from adjustment problems
– Head-off potential resistance supporting employees deal with fear
and anxiety about detrimental effects of change
– special training, counselling, time off work.


SIX APPROACHES TO COMBAT
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE - 2

• Negotiation and Agreement – some may lose out and have
considerable power to resist
– by offering incentives to employees not to resist change, to veto
elements of change, or to offer early buyouts or retirements
– … where those resisting change are in a position of power
• Manipulation and Co-option where other tactics will not work or
are too expensive
– Involve leaders of the resistance in the change effort, but if feel
they are only symbolic, they may resistance even further
• Explicit and Implicit Coercion – if speed essential, at last resort
– force acceptance by making clear that resisting change will lead to
losing jobs, firing, transferring or not promoting employees.


AN OCTOPUS HAS “THE FACTS”

Meet Paul …
• ‘predicted’ the outcome of
games involving the German
World Cup football team this
year

Does the press really think
Paul can predict the outcome
of a soccer game?
• Or is it a real misunderstanding
of the nature of probability…


SURELY THIS IS MORE THAN LUCK

Offered 2 flag-bearing boxes,
each containing a mussel,
Paul chooses one of them

• For the matches involving the
German team, Paul ‘selected’
the winner of each game

• After the game that saw
Germany lose to Spain, Paul
appeared to select the victor
through to the final


WELL, NO

Toss a coin & record whether
it comes up heads or tails

• Over dozens of tosses you’ll see
‘runs’ of several heads or
several tails
But each time you toss,
there’s a 1 in 2 chance of
coming up heads

• Regardless of what’s gone
before
So the octopus is sometimes
right, sometimes wrong; for
one or a run of ‘choices’
– Alison Campbell’s BioBlog Jul 09


WE LIKE A GOOD STORY!

Humans are pattern-seeking
creatures

• We seem very happy to imbue
mere coincidence with far more
meaning than it actually has

So we need to go carefully

On with the stories …


KURT LEWIN 1890 - 1947

• Moved from studying behaviour to engineering its change,
particularly in relation to racial and religious conflicts
• Invented sensitivity training, for making people more aware of
the effect they have on others
An early three-stage change process
• The first stage he called "unfreezing“ – overcoming inertia and
dismantling the existing "mind set“
– Defense mechanisms have to be bypassed
• In the second stage the change occurs – a period of confusion
and transition
– We are aware that the old ways are being challenged but we do not
have a clear picture as to what we are replacing them with yet
• The third and final stage he called "freezing“
– The new mindset is crystallizing and one's comfort level is returning
to previous levels … this is often misquoted as "refreezing"


ERIC TRIST 1909 – 1993

• For the last two years of the World War II, Trist was chief
psychologist to the civil resettlements units for repatriated
prisoners of war …
– “probably the most exciting single experience of my professional life”

Trist and the Tavistock Institute:
• industrial and military projects on change and reintegration
• the Family Discussion Group
• John Bowlby’s studies on mother-child separation
• the establishment of Family Systems Therapy
• the Socio-technical Systems approach with Fred Emery
Toward a Social Ecology, 1972


LEON FESTINGER 1919–1989
• Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
– inconsistency among beliefs and behaviours will cause an
uncomfortable psychological tension
– people change their beliefs to fit their actual behaviour, rather than
the other way around, as popular wisdom suggests

• Social Comparison Theory
– how people evaluate their own opinions and desires by comparing
themselves with others
– how groups exert pressures on individuals to conform with group
norms and goals

• Social Network Theory
– showed how the formation of social ties among college freshmen
was predicted by the physical proximity between people, and not just
by similar tastes or beliefs, as laymen tend to believe.
People tend to befriend their neighbours

DONALD SCHÖN 1930-1997
• A lifetime of interest in the subtle processes whereby
technological and other change is absorbed (or not) by social
systems

• “Generative metaphor”
– figurative descriptions of social situations, usually implicit and even
semi-conscious but that shape the way problems are tackled, for
example seeing a troubled inner-city neighbourhood as urban "blight"
and, hence, taking steps rooted in the idea of disease
• "Learning systems“
– exploring the possibility of learning at the supra-individual level
• Reflective practice inquiry
– the role of technical knowledge versus "artistry" in developing
professional excellence … see The Reflective Practitioner 1983
• “Reflective frames”
– of social problems which are otherwise taken for granted and can be
critically reconstructed in a shared way to solve “intractable policy
controversies” … see Frame Reflection with Martin Rein, 1994

EDGAR SCHEIN 1928 –
• "Corporate culture“
– “basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be …
that a group of people share and that determines their perceptions,
thoughts, feelings, and their overt behavior" - Schein, 1996
“Even with rigorous study, we can only make
statements about elements of culture, not culture in
its entirety”
• Artefacts
– dress code, furniture, office jokes are surface aspects which are
easily discerned, being tangible or verbally identifiable, yet may be
hard to decipher
• Espoused Values
– desired and stated cultural elements are examples of conscious
justifications, strategies, goals and philosophies below artefacts
• Basic Assumptions and Values
– difficult to discern because they exist at a largely unconscious level,
yet they provide the key to understanding why things happen the
way they do – motives, aspirations, fears and other beliefs are hard
to recognize from within

MARTIN SELIGMAN 1942 –

• Learned helplessness is a “condition … manifested by a
complete lack of incentive to do anything about one’s external
circumstances”
Seligman, Helplessness, Freeman, New York, 1992

• Learned helplessness
– a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has
learned to act or behave helplessly in a particular situation
– usually after experiencing some inability to avoid adverse situations
– even if it actually has power to change its unpleasant circumstance

• The same mechanism may mediate in individuals and groups
– the expectation of response ineffectiveness contributing to individual
and organisational ‘depression’ and inaction


PEOPLE GENERATE CHANGE BY
CREATING THE BELIEF THAT CHANGE CAN
SUCCEED

Anger
Support
Denial
Arousal

Bargaining Testing

Depression/
Acceptance

Time
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CHRIS ARGYRIS 1923 –

Individual and organizational
learning
• the extent to which human
reasoning (not just behaviour)
can become the basis for
diagnosis and action
with Donald Schön

Key concepts
• Ladder of Inference
• Double-Loop Learning
Argyris & Schön 1974
• Theory of Action / Espoused
Theory / Theory-in-use
• High Advocacy/High Inquiry
dialogue
• Actionable Knowledge


Model 1 Theory-In-Use
Governing Define goals and try to Maximize winning Minimize generating or Be rational
Variables achieve them and minimize losing expressing negative feelings
Action Design and manage the Own and control the Unilaterally protect yourself Unilaterally protect
Strategies environment unilaterally (be task (claim (speak with inferred categories others from being
persuasive, appeal to larger ownership of the accompanied by little or no hurt (withhold
goals) task, be guardian of directly observable behaviour, be information, create
definition and blind to impact on others and to rules to censor
execution of task) the incongruity between rhetoric information and
and behaviour, reduce behaviour, hold
incongruity by defensive actions private meetings)
such as blaming, stereotyping,
suppressing feelings,
intellectualizing)
Consequences Actor seen as defensive, Defensive Defensive norms (mistrust, lack Little freedom of
for the inconsistent, incongruent, interpersonal and of risk taking, conformitment, choice, internal
Behavioral competitive, controlling, group relationship emphasis on diplomacy, power- commitment, or risk
World fearful of being vulnerable, (dependence upon centred competition, and rivalry) taking
manipulative, withholding of actor, little additivity,
feelings, overly concerned little helping of
about self and others or under others)
concerned about others
Consequences Self-sealing Single-loop learning Little testing of theories publicly,
for Learning much testing of theories privately

Effectiveness Decreased effectiveness Argyris, Putnam & Smith, 1985,
Action Science, Ch. 3

Model 2 Theory-In-Use
Governing Valid information Free and informed Internal commitment to the choice
Variables choice and constant monitoring of its
implementation
Action Design situations or Tasks are controlled Protection of self is a joint Bilateral
Strategies environments where participants jointly enterprise and oriented toward protection of
can be origins and can growth (speak in directly others
experience high personal observable categories, seek to
causation (psychological reduce blindness about own
success, confirmation, inconsistency and incongruity)
essentiality)

Consequences Actor experienced as minimally Minimally defensive Learning-oriented norms (trust,
for the defensive (facilitator, interpersonal relations individuality, open confrontation
Behavioral collaborator, choice creator) and group dynamics on difficult issues)
World

Consequences Disconfirmable processes Double-loop learning Public testing of theories
for Learning
Consequences Quality of life will be more Effectiveness of
for Quality of positive than negative (high problem solving and
Life authenticity and high freedom of decision making will be
choice) great, especially for
difficult problems
Effectiveness Increase long-run effectiveness Argyris, Putnam & Smith, 1985,
Action Science, Ch. 3


MARVIN WEISBORD 193x –

Renewal
Contentment

Confusion
Denial


FUTURE SEARCH
• A 3-day planning meeting process which enables people to
cooperate in complex situations, high conflict and uncertainty

Four Principles

• Getting the “whole system in the room”

• Exploring all aspects of a system before trying to fix any part

• Putting common ground and future action front and centre
– treating problems and conflicts as information, not action items

• Having people accept responsibility for their own work,
conclusions, and action plans

BEYOND PRODUCTIVE WORKPLACES

• Future Search typically involves groups of 40 to 80 people in one
room and as many as 300 in parallel conferences
– People from diverse backgrounds use Future Searches to make
systemic improvements in their communities and organizations,
working entirely from their own experience
• Used with many social, technological and economic issues
– organize the demobilization child soldiers in Southern Sudan
– Integrate an economic development plan in Northern Ireland
– work with a Hawaiian community to reconnect with traditional values
– determine the future of urban mobility in Salt Lake City, Utah
• People achieve four outputs from one meeting
– shared values
– a plan for the future
– concrete goals
– an implementation strategy
www.futuresearch.net


HOW CAN WE BUILD IN ENDURING,
CONSTRUCTIVE NORMS AND
PROCESSES?
• How can anybody be sure the plans people make are actually
carried out?

I have pondered that question for many years. I doubt
that anybody can “build in” a technical insurance policy
for ongoing success that trumps people’s willingness to
keep revisiting worthy goals and to stay connected with
each other. The key leadership policy I advocate is
involving those who do the work in planning the work.
The best methods for doing that tend to be simple.

Productive Workplaces Revisited: Dignity, Meaning and Community in the 21st
Century, Marvin Weisbord; Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2004


WHAT’S IN OUR TOOLBOX?

As psychologists, we have evidence that people
don't change behaviour just because they are
rationally convinced
• They change instinctively because it is more convenient, more
acceptable, more safe and more expedient
• They change intellectually because they believe it will be better
for them, in their subjective and diverse meanings of 'better‘

Where can we apply this insight to assist action in
the interest of sustaining the planet on which we
live?


O'Connor Psychology and sustainability ~ NZPsS 1007

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