Manila, 12 June 2024 — What to learn from neuroscience about resisting change. 

Story 

It happened over the past six weeks. While taking a course to learn more from neuroscience to improve our coaching practice, my mentor coach Julia Stewart, the president of the International Association of Positive Psychology Coaches (IAPPC), referred to what she called the Motivation Kill Switch. That made me sit up and pay even closer attention. Where is that switch and how does it trigger resistance to change?

Our motivation states, it turns out, are influenced by the habenula, a small structure in the brain located near to the pineal gland. It plays an important role in our brain’s reward and aversion systems and the processing of negative feedback. For example, when you have worked on a new behavior for some time, and without much success as yet, the habenula might switch off your motivation so that you won’t spend more effort on it. That way, your resistance to making the necessary changes would go up. 

When faced with the prospect of change, especially if the outcome is uncertain, and that holds for most of your work as a leader, the habenula may signal a negative response, discouraging you from pursuing a new or unfamiliar path. Because your subconscious brain prioritizes safety and predictability over the potential risks associated with new experiences, this mechanism will tempt you to stay stuck in the status quo and avoid change. That’s frustrating!

Challenge

Leading changes takes time, effort, and stamina. How, then, can we leaders keep our motivation high and overcome our resistance to change when our work to influence others—and lead ourselves—takes more time?  And how do we overcome our human negativity bias that always makes us more aware of setbacks than of the bright spots of progress that are happening too?

Thankfully, a good part of the IAPPC course was focused on answering those questions, which are so critical to coaches as we continuously work on helping our clients to navigate transitions, overcome resistance, and make significant changes in their behaviors and results. There is so much to learn about using our minds to regulate what happens in our brains. That is exciting news, and I thoroughly enjoyed the course.

In short, I would summarize what you can learn from neuroscience about overcoming resistance in three steps. First, expand your awareness of the resistance to change by shining a light on it in your particular situation. Second, change your mental narrative to one that lets you learn optimistically from practice. Third, repeat your practice over and over, just like you will when you keep exercising your muscles to gradually build your core strength. Practice makes progress. 

Question

Setting out to make a positive change happen in yourself, your team, and your workplace will invariably trigger resistance to that change. The mechanisms of resistance, including the habenula switching off your motivation to prevent you from spending more energy on your efforts for that difficult change, are deeply embedded in how our brains work.

Moreover, because most of the resistance happens in our subconscious, it’s a real challenge for us to recognize and overcome the resistance mechanisms and take full charge of the situation as leaders of ourselves and others. Today, another mentor described this challenge as reducing our resistance to the now. Think about it, where are you still living in resistance to the now, including the wonderful possibilities that are waiting for you to act on them? Isn’t it time to unclench your fist?

That’s where working with a leadership coach can deliver tremendous value to help you discover and overcome the resistance to change: in yourself, your team, and your organization. Resistance means that you’re not allowing positive energy to flow. It means that you’re staying stuck instead of relaxing into life as it is. Like that clenched fist, resistance is a waste of your precious energy. It takes away your power to create the outcome you want. If you want to overcome resistance, let’s discuss in a free strategy call what a leadership coaching program can do for you and your team.