Evoking Change
Photo by alexcl13 from Flickr
Change – a word which conjures up many emotions and associations, everything from a prickling of an impatient anticipation to the churning dark feelings of dread at the pit of the stomach. Of course, intrinsically, change itself cannot be good or bad, everything depends on a perspective of an individual and the meaning that he or she places behind it. More often than not, the idea of change brings on largely negative emotions at first, because to change means to step out of a well known groove paved by familiar, reliable actions and to begin carving a new path for oneself.
For newcomers who have arrived in Canada, many aspects of their lives are drastically altered. Perhaps one of the biggest changes occurs on a professional level, that is, figuring out where one’s professional credentials stand and how to tailor them to the Canadian job market demands. Often this entails making some sort of alternation to the existing situation such as upgrading courses or writing exams to receive a license allowing practice in Canada. This alteration may completely change your career path, or may simply change the way you write your resume or prepare for a job interview to fit with the expectations of Canadian employers.
Over the past several months of working with clients who seek advice on how to gain employment, I have witnessed a diverse array of reactions ranging from eagerly embracing the idea of change to firmly holding on to the comfortable way of doing things. Observing this made me wonder: why are people in general resistant to trying new things? What is it about change that is scary, uncomfortable and undesirable and causes some individuals to resist new ideas?
A Motivational Interviewing workshop that I attended provided some interesting answers. This workshop was designed to help people evoke a desire to change their behavior through specific exercises. Often, if you ask an individual, “Why are you not (taking courses for upgrading, changing resume, changing your presentation style)? you hear answers along the lines of, “It takes too much time, I have no money, my age won’t let me, I have been doing things this way for a while and it has worked for me in the past”. However, such responses are usually not the real reasons why people feel reluctant to change, so trying to solve these challenges might not lead individuals towards the result they are seeking. Instead we need to dig deeper.
Decisional Balance Grid
A simple exercise utilizing the Decisional Balance Grid (DGB for short) shown below may help resolve the problem. Within each of the four boxes of the DGB, a question is asked to help deconstruct the problem, and although the questions in each box are similar, the answers are often surprisingly different.
Let’s consider a simple example to illustrate the process: you are making a decision to upgrade your resume, but your current behaviour is to keep putting off the task until another day.
The question in Box #1 of the DBG reflects the status quo or your current position: “What is the benefit of keeping my current resume unchanged?” You might answer, “I will not have to spend any more time on upgrading it, and I think it already looks pretty good.” You may be able to answer this almost without pausing to think because it explains or defends your current behaviour.
The question in Box #2 encourages you to consider the opposing viewpoint: “If I keep my resume unchanged, how is this problematic?” The answer may be, “Because I haven’t been receiving many calls for interviews”. Although answering Question #2 potentially nudges a person in the direction of change, it still might not cause you to initiate significant change.
It is the question in Box #3 that often provides the true platform for initiating change: “If I made changes in my resume, how would my situation improve?” Your possible answer is, “I might get more phone calls for an interview.” While this response simply mirrors the answer to Question #2, it tends to be more accepted because it focuses on the positive – the benefit associated with the change rather than the concern.
Even recognizing the benefit(s), an individual might still feel unmotivated to embrace change without tackling the hidden issues elicited by the question in Box #4: “If I decided to make changes to my resume, how might this make my situation worse?” In our simple example of changing a resume, you might answer, “I could remove information that causes me to miss out on a job I really want”, or, “My employment counsellor wants me to include skills that I don’t feel confident using.” The problem is not laziness or unwillingness to admit that your resume could use improvement; rather, it is the fear of unintentionally making your situation worse by making a change.
In a real-life situation, identifying your hidden issues might require considerable reflection or discussion with another person. If you are able to answer Question #4 honestly, you will probably arrive at the real root of your reluctance to initiate change. Exploring blocks and what needs to happen for those barriers to diminish opens your mind to changing your behaviour and working toward a positive result.
Although this tool is used by counsellors who are helping clients discover their reason for resistance to change, I believe that DBG may be used personally as well. When facing a tough decision, asking yourself these four questions can assist with identifying the reason behind your reluctance to move forward.
Try it. What you discover might surprise you.
