Change Competency

6 min readJul 27, 2018

People require the capacity and capability to change.

This article is about creating the capability to change.

Desire and Attitude to change

Feeling vs. rational thinking

No matter how aware you become of what is important to you and which behaviour brings you the best results; awareness alone, will not guarantee a lasting change in behaviour. Behaviour change can be very uncomfortable, consuming vast amounts of effort and energy, if you approach the change in the wrong way.

The executive brain system provides rational thinking and we tend to use it to analyse and come up with a rational reason to change. We can think or even fully believe that we have a strong enough reason to change, but this is not enough for the whole brain to be motivated to make the change.

Our unconscious brain system, will do whatever it takes, to resist the use of precious energy on making a change. But there are some simple approaches we can use to ensure that we approach the change in a way that is attractive for the whole brain.

We need to feel that the behaviour change is important, not just think it is!

People therefore need the tools that can help them make the change smaller, easier and more attractive to their whole brain.

The unconscious system in our brain keeps us safe and is often driven to maximise pleasure while minimising pain/threat.

Once we have identified the effective behaviour that we need to change or incorporate, we need to minimise the need to use the executive system of our brain, when implementing the behaviour (for example minimise the need for self-control). The executive brain system is one of the most energy hungry parts of our body, it’s capacity is easily depleted and our brain wants to conserve energy as much as possible.

Motivation and Purpose

When it comes to making a change, it is important to consider what is REALLY motivating us. Is it because we think we SHOULD or HAVE to change, based on what others say or do, or do we really WANT to or LOVE to make the change because we are intrinsically motivated?

As mentioned above your brain’s prime directive is to keep us alive and safe. This means looking after our physical and social needs whilst maximising reward whilst minimising threat. So, it is important to identify the real reward behind making the change, for example, will it help us meet our basic physical needs (sleep, rest, move, fuel, etc.) and social needs (acceptance, belonging, respect, recognition, etc)?

It is also important to consider the WHY behind the change. What is the real purpose behind it? Is the change directly impacting or contributing towards something that really matters to you?

Mindset

Our attitude to change is also crucial in making or breaking our desired change.

Our mindset is essentially our attitude which is influenced by our values and beliefs. For example, do I believe that failure means I am not good enough (Fixed mindset), or do I believe that failure provides an opportunity to learn and grow (Growth mindset). Do I just focus on how good I am now (Fixed) or do I focus on how much better I can become through effort and practice (Growth)?

Change can become an experiment, in which we test different hypotheses on which behaviours/actions provide our desired growth and development.

If we fail or get an undesired result, we can learn from it then apply our learning when creating a new hypothesis to experiment with. If we succeed we can apply the factors that caused the success, to other challenges we face. In this way we can continuously develop, in small increments.

How to change

Forming Habits — Automation

Charles Duhigg, famously wrote about the habit loop in his book, The power of habit.

You can use the habit loop to turn your desired behaviour change into a habit.

A habit loop is made up of:

Cue — A trigger that initiates the routine/behaviour (e.g. time, location, another person)
Routine — The behaviour
Reward — See motivation above

Starting small, iterating and quick wins

Often your brain will do all it can to resist change if the change is too big as it wants to conserve energy and as mentioned above the executive system consumes significant energy when consciously practicing a new behaviour. If you find that you are not practicing the behaviour as much as desired, break the behaviour down into smaller pieces, then choose a frequency that you know you can easily achieve (quick wins).

BJ Fogg, in his Fogg method, states “simplicity changes behaviour”.

It is better to achieve a small win regularly, as this will help you build enough attention density to turn the new behaviour into a habit.

Making the change stick

Attention Density and Neuroplasticity

Where we put our attention, literally changes our brain
We give life to what we pay attention to
This impacts how we see and interact with the world

This is why it is so important to be specific on the routine/behaviour you need to practice when changing or building a new habit.
What is the behaviour, how will you do it, what will trigger it, what is the intrinsic reward?

The more you think about and practice the behaviour, with intensity of focus (attention density) the more likely you will enable your brain to wire (or re-wire) a new path (neuroplasticity), that will result in your brain being able to implement the behaviour automatically (no conscious thought required).

It is considered that approx. 45% to 90% of what you do each day is automated by your brain.
That is why the most fulfilled and successful people have made their most important behaviours, automatic. This means they have identified their most effective behaviours (ones that provide results that matter), then practised them to the point that they became automatic and no longer need significant conscious thought (and therefore consume much less energy and effort).

To be able to maintain the practice it also helps to have contingency plans. So what happens when time is short, you are in a different location, you do not have all the equipment you require, etc?

What do you want to practice today?