Lora McCoy discusses how to shift the psychological response to change and help stakeholders adapt and adopt the change.

Show Notes

When it comes to change, often the only one who isn’t afraid is the person driving the change.  Sometimes a person’s response to change seems irrational.

That response is driven by a fear of the unknown.  We fear what we don’t understand.

Standard practices of implementing change fail because they don’t address this underlying fear and the psychology of change.

We can move people out of the fear based fight or flight response by involving them in the change and even making it fun.

When we try to take people from fear to acceptance using logic, it frequently doesn’t work because you’re taking them from a negative limbic brain focus to the front of the brain where logic resides.  It’s much easier to move people from the fight or flight response to excitement or fun and then into logic.

Listen to the full episode to understand techniques you can use to make change more fun.

How to overcome fear of change with fun and excitement
Your Homework

Before your next change initiative, check out the Kübler-Ross change curve. That will allow you to connect with the emotional and psychological experience people go through during change. That will help you understand where people are in the change process and know how to respond with the way you communicate and the techniques you use.

Also, go to GameStorming.com and explore exercises such as Flip It to help people adapt to change.

Links Mentioned in this Episode


Lora McCoy is a Certified Business Analysis Professional with over 20 years of experience performing Business Analysis activities as well as Quality Assurance, and Project Management. She currently engages daily in BA consulting efforts, educates for IIBA certification internationally and serves as the Director of Americas Central Region for the IIBA where she applies that passion through mentorship and knowledge sharing.


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