Feel blocked leading change? When making changes in either your personal life or at work, you might be doing everything right! But if your strategies are built on old myths, you’re braking your own progress. Do you believe any of these myths?

MYTH:   People resist change.          

TRUTH: People don’t resist change, they resist loss.

It’s not change that’s the problem; we’re born to change and adapt. People resist losing self-esteem, looking foolish, losing face, feeling like a failure. In fact, the fear of shame, ‘looking bad in front of others’ and being rejected from the group is the strongest, most intractable fear we have.  If you highlight what will be kept, what will be gained, what WON’T be lost, and how to prevent people looking bad in front of others, change will be less of an issue.

By believing that ‘people resist change,’ you are hesitant when presenting needed changes. You hold back, appear cautious, expect resistance. Outline the pros and cons of the changes in a way that’s clear that there is a net gain in the end.

MYTH:      Personality is ‘set.’           

TRUTH:  Personality is fluid, if there is such a thing as personality.

This old myth declares that some people can’t be changed or fixed, as in: “Oh, that’s just the way he is.” This myth is a convenient cop-out both for the leader and the ‘personality’ in question. A personality is never ‘set.’ Rather than having a ‘personality,’ instead we are a sum of our beliefs, actions and attitudes. None of these are fixed. All can change if we choose to change them.

MYTH: You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

TRUTH: People can change easily at any age. It’s not age, it’s mindset.

By believing that older employees will have a challenge learning, you might inadvertently require less of them – or think you need to replace them with younger and better learners. In so doing, you lose valuable wisdom and experience that you sorely need. Humans can learn well at any age; there’s no limit to the age that humans can form completely new neuronal networks.

How many employees over 55 are sliding because of this myth? How many over 55 have cut back or cut out? Recent brain research shows that the brain rewires the same way at any age. With persistence, people can learn as much at 90 as they do at 20.

MYTH:    Change takes time.

TRUTH: Change can be created suddenly and often is.

Some processes do take time: system upgrades, complex expansions. But people can change overnight if need be. Feet to the fire, people can change instantly. You just have to get clear, make a compelling case, expect immediate change and follow through. They won’t break.

By believing that too much change will be overwhelming, you hesitate to present the full range of needed changes, or lose momentum by spacing changes out too much. If anything, as long as the path is clear and logical, change faster.

MYTH:  Too much stress from change will make people sick.

TRUTH: People can withstand an almost unlimited amount of stress.

Obviously, if physical forces exceed our body’s capacity, we will succumb. Otherwise, we have protective mechanisms in place to present stress from becoming overwhelming. The myth of “too much change” developed from inaccurate and misleading earlier stress studies in which cumulative life events could add up to give you a score wherein you would theoretically become sick. This scale The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale did not control for perception of the event, which in itself dictated how much stress would be felt.

There is no limit to the amount of change we can sustain. Chaotic, chronic, unpredictable, and traumatic change can create issues, but it is possible to work to reduce those factors. Ordinary life events will not make you sick.

MYTH:  Uncertainty and confusion are signs of weakness.

TRUTH: Uncertainty and confusion are signs of growth.

Just like the myth that mistakes indicate failure, the old leadership myth that ‘not knowing’ is a weakness can stop progress short. Successful teams hold that, no matter what, all questions are positive, and not knowing is a sign of intellectual curiosity. Confusion means you’re weighing many options and able to hold them in mind simultaneously. Curiosity is the new Intelligence: Admit to not knowing and make it an acceptable norm.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.”
— Albert Einstein, 1955