Let’s face it! Change is personal. Yet, we often hear that we should divorce emotions from business. It sounds something like this… “Leave the personal stuff at the door” or “Leave the emotion out of it” or “Let’s focus on the facts, not the individual” or some other statement like that.

But people are not machines. Research has shown that unlike Descartes suggested, emotion does drive behavior and decisions (A. Damasio, A. Bechara, L. Sayegh). This is evident in financial market fluctuations. Markets don’t react. People (investors, traders, etc.) react. People make emotional and irrationally decisions. Most of our purchases are biased by our emotions (ask a professional sales person!).

So, when it comes to change, people also react based on emotions. It is part of being a human. Why? There are at least two reasons. First, organizational change often threatens (at least in perception) what people hold dear to them such as their…

• Status in the organization
• Ability to influence others
• Level of contribution
• Routine and habits
• Career progression
• Pay and ability to maintain a life style
• Job security

All of these interfere with a person’s comfort and safety. And that’s personal!

A second reason is that change requires people to make choices. Should I support this change? How do I cope best? How do I tell so and so? Should I voice my concerns or suck it up? Should I wait it out or leave while I can? These are only some of the decisions facing someone who is undergoing significant change. People consider the facts of course, but in the end, it’s what’s in their hearts that will drive them to action. And that’s personal!

During time of change, it is critically important to understand people and why they react the way they do. For instance, so called “resistance to change” is fundamentally a personal emotional response, not a cognitive reaction. Yet, resistance is often addressed by traditional business communication (one way, fact-based, top down), which most often ignores the root cause of the resistance but is seen as a panacea for organizational change.

So, if you think you should you leave the emotions out of organizational change, think again. Because when it comes to change, it’s personal. And ignoring that, doesn’t’ make it go away. It only gets more personal. Just ask Reed Hastings!

p.s. ok, he did come to his senses, just a bit late.

Photo by Ambro