8/17/2010 10:51:35 AM Change has many faces.
One of those faces is to understand how change happens in individuals.
One personal change model I came across in my reading resonanted and I thought I'd share the basics of it with you in this month's article.
As I write this, I'm sitting in an airport in London England on my way to help train and equip pastors in Zimbawbe, Swaziland and South African in conflict resolution and leading change among other things. Change is trully a subject that is relevant all over the world. I believe God would be honored for us to better change agents as we work with Him in the work of transformation.
As we jump into the human change process, I want to thank Terry Bacon and Karen Spear (authors of "Adaptive Coaching") for their ideas on this subject. These ideas come from a chapter they added on to the end of their book on how coaching needs to be adaptive in nature to be truly effective. They write from a coaching perspective.
Change rarely happens instantaneously. It usually takes time, in part because it means rewiring the brain, and the older people get, the longer the rewiring can take. Human change is a process, not an event.
The following is a coaching sequence that can be helpful in working with people through change.
Some assumptions that this process is based on:
- This process is a rational one so it applied to people who are rational, well functioning adults and not with those with psychological issues.
- The change process may appear to be a series of steps but is in fact often messy and iterative.
- This process will not work unless the person being coached is able to change. The coach is a helper, not a driver.
The Process As It Plays Itself Out
People begin the change process when they become aware of the need for change.
However, being aware of the need will not result in change unless they also feel a strong sense of urgency.
Note: there are five places to look for motivation during the change process which can create urgency. Fear of consequences if things don't change, fulfillment as a result of the changes, the benefit in terms of meaningful fellowship, a compelling leader who inspires followership, and tapping into change because of your faith.
That urgency must be enough to compel them to decide that they need to do things differently.
Following the decision must be some problem solving around what, specifically, they need to do differently, what barriers they might encounter, and how they will overcome them. If they can successfully problem-solve, they know what to do.
The next step is commitment – having the will to act, to start following the new path.
Down the road, they will need to have their new behaviours reinforced or they risk lapsing back into their old, familiar habits.
How what?
This has been brief and not exhaustive for a reason. To simply motivate you to do some of your own work on learning more about the change process.
Here are some questions to help you take these seeds and plant them in the fertile soil of learning.
1. How do you understand change?
2. What is the process you follow when working with individuals in their growth and change process?
3. Spend some time reflecting on the process you go through intuitively or on purpose to help others change.
4. Now, take what you`ve refined and pass it on and teach it to someone else.
