Change for any organization comes in many forms. Most, however, don’t require a drastic change in the way people work or how they think. Sooner or later though, many companies will embark on complicated performance-improvement programs that do require altering the mind-sets of employees to be successful. When that day comes, it’s crucial to consider the psychological reasons for why people think and act as they do. Using insights from behavioral science will diminish the obstacles along your change journey, and increase your chances of effecting long-term change.

True believers

People constantly need a constant synchronization between their beliefs and their actions. If the two are conflicting, they will change one or the other to restore the balance. This means that as an organization, your employees will support and act on a change they can truly believe in. In order to garner that belief, you and your leadership will need to effectively communicate the compelling reasons that make the change worthwhile. Your communications should help employees clearly understand their roles and point out the impact their behavior has on success. Their contributions must make sense to them on a personal level as well as a professional one. They’ll be onboard only if they see the purpose and agree with it.

Positive reinforcement

A lot has been written about what motivates people in organizations and positive reinforcement is a factor that typically ranks as being particularly important. When asking your workers to embrace change, be sure that your structures are consistent with the behavior you want them to provide. For instance, if you want to reduce bureaucracy and encourage more entrepreneur-like thinking, consider recognizing and rewarding employees who take charge and resolve problems quickly. Without reinforcement, employees are likely to be inconsistent in changing their behaviors, if at all.

Proper skills and appropriate training

To get your employees to act differently, you may need to teach them how. If, for example, your company has long valued product innovation and you now need to create a culture change that places the core focus squarely on the customer, retraining may be in order.

Any training that provides your workforce with new skills takes time. Adults require an intricate learning process, one that includes listening, time to absorb the information, time to put it into application, and time to integrate it with their existing knowledge base. What’s more, people learn more thoroughly when they have the opportunity to describe and share their learning experiences with others. Know that your training process will take time, but so does any process that’s intended to bring about large-scale change.

Walking the talk

As part of their behavior-changing process, your employees will look to company role models for reassurance and reinforcement. These will not necessarily be your top-level management team members or even managers, for that matter. Various influential people from all levels within your organization will serve as role models. Therefore, it’s imperative that your company’s most influential people be onboard with the new way of thinking and working.

People don’t like change, but do want to grow

Change is never easy, and change management is particularly difficult when you’re initiating a sweeping cultural change in the workplace. While most people aren’t comfortable with change, everyone has the intrinsic desire to grow and develop his or her skills and abilities. Consider translating your company’s change into personal meaning for your employees. Oftentimes, the need to satisfy personal development will supersede any external rationale for your company-wide change. The result is an altered mind-set that is personally rewarding for your employees and long lasting to the benefit of your change objectives.