The Accidental Learner: Fostering Change

Where is My Mind?




This experiment suggests that many people do not process the myriad of information coming through their eyes. Consequently, many people experience a form of change blindness, i.e., we often miss large changes to our visual world from one view to the next. As such, we are often unable to see large changes that would appear to be patently obvious to somebody who knows the changes are going to happen.

In this experiment, 75 percent of the participants do not notice the change in the person behind the counter. So what might this finding suggest? What separates those who do notice the change from those who do not? Individual differences? Coincidence?

So much depends on where our mind is focused and the ways we choose to participate in the world. This experiment is a helpful illustration of perceptual blindness and the slippery slope that is memory. Clearly we all share a limited capacity for attention that limits the amount of information processed at any given moment. If we do not see something, consequently, it will not exist in our mind.


Fostering Change

This illustration is also important to consider when examining what is involved in getting others to see things differently, i.e., change their ways of seeing. Whatever a change agent's cause — global warming, ending risky financial speculation, reforming pay to reward performance, corporate culture change, or innovation in an established institution — confronting change blindness is essential. Rosabeth Moss Kanter offers a set of tactics that have been found to be helpful in getting people to move from a state of denial to a state of acceptance and change. These tools include:

Start with the facts -- Change advocates must make sure the evidence they marshall is beyond reproach, which often means gathering appropriate evidence from multiple sources.

Consider the alternatives -- Change advocates must know the other side as well as their own. They must confront, not deny, alternative explanations and respond with compelling arguments, sometimes incorporating grains of truth in skeptics' positions.

Show where the change will lead -- Facts are only a starting point. Significant change rests on beliefs. Change advocates must identify long-term benefits that will be valuable to the shared values held by many (i.e., the stakeholders).

Pressure and repetition -- When pressure for change is in deniers' faces every day, they often succumb.

Getting people to see what is in front of their eyes is challenging for educators and change agents alike. Clearly, much of what passes for existence is uncertain. As such, we are often comforted by keeping things the way they are. Doing nothing different or nothing at all is easy. Everyone has silent veto power. Change blindness is always in play and in every aspect of our awareness, judgment and politics exists. For educators and change agents, leadership is key.


Three-takeaways

To successfully confront change and change blindness (in this case, think of change blindness as a form of resistance), consider the following strategies:

Collaborate -- working with others in a collegial and supportive manner can help orgainze, facts and counter arguments.

Communicate -- in working with others to foster a new vision, communication is vital to insure show where the changes will lead.

Learn how to learn together -- learning, uncovering the facts, moving in positive and appropriate directions works best when it is done within a culture that tolerates diversity, collaboration, failure, and learning from all of these combined experiences.

While what I offer here is nothing new, per se, I believe it's important to reflect on both the barriers to change and the conditions which can foster positive growth and development. The contexts in which change blindness occurs may be unique depending on your situation, but the ways to address change, denial, and resistance, remain relatively consistent and are always relevant.

Posted in: Psikologi