One of the problems of change is how to navigate status quo bias.
Traditionally, change practitioners have used tactics that involve creating a sense of urgency or crisis to overcome status quo bias. However, the creation of urgency may increase anxiety and stress, which inevitability leads to avoidance motivation, confusion and a reinforcement of the status quo.
To support people in a successful transition from current to future state, we need to first understand why we have a cognitive bias toward the status quo.
Cognitive biases help us make decisions against uncertainty and conflicting objectives toward the automatic, the known and the unquestioned. The status quo comes from habits, convenience, sunk costs, and self-rationalisation.
To overcome status quo bias, we shouldn’t create panic and stress by vilifying the status quo and creating a ‘burning platform.’ Rather we need to magnify the status quo and our current strengths, so we can approach the future with confidence and connection to the past.
This is not an approach that denies the need or urgency to change, but rather it finds strengths that will help navigate change in a calm, inspired and psychologically sound manner.
At Potenture, we use motivating and effective approaches to change that are good for your organisation and your people’s health and wellbeing.
