One Factor Stopping You from Successful Leadership Change

Change, in any situation, can be complicated and challenging or it can be structured and smooth. Implementing change requires leaders, leaders who demonstrate behaviours so that those involved feel heard, feel motivated to change and are empowered to change. Over more than ten years of implementing change initiatives, both successfully and unsuccessfully, I have noticed that there is one psychological effect that seems to be ignored, yet it can be the difference between success and failure. In this post I will share what that effect is and how you can overcome to increase your chances of success.

Over the last ten years I have been involved in delivering incredibly large and complex projects, and no matter the project, client or location, one element that links all these projects together, is the need for change. Change initiatives, a series of structured steps to change a system or process, come thick and fast. This is usually how they go (when I don’t lead them):

1. Problem identifier calls a meeting
2. Discuss for an hour or so about the problem without a structured solution
3. Get a vague understanding of how to move forward (because after an hour of talking most people have switched off)
4. Agree we need to change something and leave the meeting
5. Reconvene a week later and nothing has been done because no one has taken any action

I have seen this process repeat itself time and time again. I will not explain the steps to implement change or how to be open to change in this post as I want to focus on one element of this process, element number 5; the fact that no one does anything.

Let’s use another scenario. Take for example protests or workplace strikes that take place across the world. These events, usually, take place due to inequality, discrimination, injustice, an unfair environment, a feeling of unrest and so much more. However, one thing that is far too common is the lack of positive change which comes from the protest or workplace strike. Those involved in the event are making their voices heard (creating urgency for change, the first step!), but then change doesn’t materialise.

When I looked at recent events of this nature I noticed a common theme to my personal example on major projects, the Bystander Effect.

What is the Bystander Effect?

The bystander effect is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present; the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help. According to Psychology Today, the bystander effect was made popular by social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley following the infamous murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City in 1964. Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old woman who was stabbed to death outside her apartment and at the time, it was reported that dozens of neighbours failed to step in to assist or call the police. The bystander effect, according to Latané and Darley was attributed two factors: diffusion of responsibility and social influence. Psychology Today explains these as: “the perceived diffusion of responsibility means that the more onlookers there are, the less personal responsibility individuals will feel to take action. Social influence means that individuals monitor the behaviour of those around them to determine how to act”.

Why this applies to leadership?

Now you may be reading this and thinking, what does this have to do with implementing change? Well, one of the most crucial steps in implementing change successfully is the fact that people are assigned actions and are given responsibility in that situation.

Let’s go back to my example, the reason we reconvene the week after with no progress is because everyone assumed that somebody else would do the action and no one truly understand what was required.

Let’s now look at the example of protests and workplace strikes, one key reason positive and lasting change doesn’t often occur is because there is no clear action and requirement list.

If we applies these to the bystander effect both of these situations fits into both factors determined by Latané and Darley, diffusion of responsibility and social influence. In both examples, there are people onlookers looking towards someone else to take responsibility (diffusion) and because no one else is, they won’t say anything either (social influence).

So how can you overcome this and make your change initiatives successful?

Let’s go back to Latané and Darley. It was written that one effective way to change this is to actively call people out. So instead of say, “we want action”, say “this is the action and you (actively name someone) are going to do it”. Think about this situation, if you’ve ever played football in the park with your friends and someone shouts “who’s next in goal?” No one puts there hand up, but if someone shouts your name and says “you’re next in goal!” You go in goal. Simple, yet effective.

By practising this simple action you will be able to make people more accountable to change initiatives, which will increase your probability of success and go on to increase you influence as a leader.

Thank you for reading, JT

References

• Psychology Today (2020). Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bystander-effect