We are naturally resistant to change, even when we know that change is good for us or is in any case completely unavoidable. It makes far more sense to accept the inevitability of change and to learn effective (and healthy) ways to respond.
One major barrier is the beliefs, traditions and superstitions we all harbour (to different extents) in our heads.
Our beliefs create our internal reality (and with that, great comfort in the “known”). But that belief can also distance us from actual reality. What we “know” may not actually be real. It wasn't all that long ago that most of the world believed that the Earth is flat, that darker-skinned people are sub-human, and women are second-class citizens. No one can argue that such disconnections from reality are harmful and retard social and technological progress.
Our willingness to challenge these internal “truths” – our willingness to step out of the comfort zone they create – directly affects our ability to cope with change.
Unthinking beliefs can…
- Limit our creativity. Most Chinese businesses “must” use red and yellow as their corporate colours because those are the lucky colours.
- Hasten the depletion of scarce resources. Eating endangered species as pseudo-medicine, status or “cultural preservation.”
- Retard social progress and continue to perpetrate injustice. Fundamentalist believers selectively quoting verses from their holy books to discriminated against minority groups (while conveniently ignoring those that apply to their own behaviours.)
- Limits self actualisation. Because I am a [insert label here], this is the only thing I can do.
- Limiting innovation. The global financial crisis should have engendered a complete reboot of our economic system – but it hasn’t because we have forgotten that it is a human invention, and because “we have always done things this way.”
- Limits the pursuit of knowledge and learning. It is a permission to ignore reason and facts. On a personal scale, many girls miss out on education because of their gender. On a cultural scale, the Muslim world, once the bastion of science and mathematics, has contributed negligible scientific discoveries (in terms of published papers) to the global pool in recent times. On a national scale, the spread of “creationism” in science education is deliberately creating a new scientifically-illiterate generation.
- Perpetuates division and exclusion. As long as we all operate on the simplistic, stereotypical beliefs we have about the various ethnic, cultural or religious groups that make up this diverse planet, we stop seeing people as people, and we continue to work on the divisive “them” versus “us” mentality. Consider your responses to these statements: All Asians are… All Jews are… All gays are…
Challenging internal beliefs is not easy. They are often caught up in emotive issues around identity and belonging. If we change our beliefs, we may become ostracised from our families, communities and social groups. We may also be offending God!
Does this matter? Surely every one of us is entitled to our beliefs after all right?
Sure. Except there are quite a lot of us (global population wise) at the last count. The effect from individual actions (or inactions), based on individual beliefs and internal “realities”, can become grossly amplified by population.
The effects of a few people who believe that business success should only be measured on profits versus a whole hemisphere will be markedly different!
