When Smart People Resist Change

by Nancy Dailey, Ph.D. and Kelly O'Brien

"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." This saying captures the culture of many organizations these days as they struggle to reinvent themselves, stay competitive, or grow. Why, when organizations are filled with smart, successful people? Successful people got where they are because they were good at what they do. But the same skills that made them successful can also make them closed to learning new things and embracing change.

The research on "experts" and "smart people" reveals a shared characteristic -- the ability to transfer learning to new problems. They can transform their mastery of concepts and information from a set of facts into usable knowledge. Experts can quickly identify what is relevant, which is why they are good problem solvers. But what happens when smart people confront problems outside of their experience or knowledge base? When the analogies and metaphors drawn from their knowledge reservoir don't make sense in the current environment?

Framing the right problem
The problem then becomes one of framing. How smart people go about defining and solving problems is at the core of this dilemma. We see this with technology conversions when all resources get allocated to software selection and installation, while ignoring culture change and real-time impact on day-to-day operations.

Chris Argyris' classic Harvard Business Review article, Teaching Smart People How to Learn, speaks to this "smart people" dilemma. Often the smartest people have the most difficult time learning. He postulates that highly professional and successful people rarely experience failure and therefore never have the opportunity to learn from failure. So when the inevitable failure happens, they "...become defensive, screen out criticism, and put the "blame" on anyone and everyone but themselves. In short, their ability to learn shuts down precisely at the moment they need it most."

Failure is inevitable
When an organization undergoes significant and fundamental transition, it is exactly when the system needs all of its really smart, successful people ready to address the new problems that will be unleashed. And failures -- some big, some small -- are inevitable. The inability to quickly learn is a huge obstacle if the key players can't accept that they are on a steep learning curve, step up to handle failure, and adopt a personal learning ethic that others can model. Unfortunately, the norm is far more often that people finger-point, play the blame game, and generally back away from owning what are reasonable and predictable missteps along the way.

How smart people can embrace change
Argyris attributes this dynamic in organizations to the lack of "double-loop learning" or the lack of critical reflection and honest feedback. His remedy for smart people: reflect critically on your own behavior, identify the ways you may inadvertently contribute to the organization's problems, and then change how you act. You must learn how the very way you go about defining and solving problems can be a source of problems in its own right. Just because you're smart, doesn't mean you're immune to lifelong learning. Importing new ideas from other mindsets and seeking out role models during times of transition or chaos are noble strategies for accelerating your own learning curve. Show others how really smart you are, not how far you can dig in your heels.