Change, Fear, and Division

Over the last two decades, experts in organizational psychology and behavior have studied how people, organizations, and larger social systems manage change.  While there are various models that describe change, there are some clear markers common among those models that are found in the process of change. Even when people want change, change brings with it a sense of loss for the way things were as well as doubts that the change that’s coming will be better.  There’s discomfort with the change.  It’s part of the process.  The loss, doubt, and discomfort all happen before people fully embrace and integrate change.  It’s only after working through the discomfort and sense of loss that people can accept that things are better because of the change.

A common mistake that leaders often make is to think that simply by reiterating the vision for the future, change will result.  Rarely is enough attention paid to the loss, doubt, and discomfort people experience.  When the loss, doubt, and discomfort aren’t properly addressed, people want to go back to the way things were.  Not only is the change subverted but people will entrench in the way things used to be and block all efforts to change.

Let me be clear:  these dynamics of change happen with personal behavior (like making plans to lose weight and exercise more), with group behavior (like a volunteer organization or faith community), and with large organizational systems (like corporations or government). 

We live in a time when so much change is happening that people are uncomfortable, fearful, longing to return to times when life was simpler.  Many people are experiencing a great sense of loss both for things they can identify as well as for a sense of security.  The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus fuels one dimension of people longing to return to the way life was.  We also see these same dynamics play out across societies and cultures with people wanting to stop the changes that occur with multiculturalism, newer ways of work that have emerged related to technology and the gig economy, and the shifts that have occurred in families and communities due to increased mobility.  The result is that many countries like the US, Brazil, and the UK are more internally divided than in the past. Other nations, like Australia and Germany, are facing divisions as right-wing politics emerge.  These divisions are not limited to the countries I’m naming but hold a significant impact around the world.

The tensions related to change-management are not just at work in national politics.  The sphere of religion is characterized today by deep internal divisions.  Many religions are torn by left and right-wing views.  Evangelical Christians are at odds with mainline and progressive Christians, creating what now look like two different religions.  Denominations themselves are splitting apart, like Roman Catholics who have an active, progressive wing rooted in social justice and a traditionalist wing that prefers mass in Latin and pre-Vatican devotionals.  There are also divisions in Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

The result of these divisions is a deep tension between two sides leading to both sides claiming that the other is wrong and needs to be stopped.  Out of this tension, fake news and conspiracy theories have fertile ground in which to grow.  Fake news and conspiracy theories are attempts by people to find some security or something dependable amid change.  It’s as though knowing “a hidden truth” protects them from change.

In all, the tensions are more pronounced for those on the right.  That’s because the right wants to return to a way of living that no longer exists.  The desire to return to the past, to stop change, is fomented by leaders who inspire fear in the natural process of change and keep emotions high so that natural discomfort of change becomes overdramatized.  In the end, not only is change blocked, but people entrench in untenable positions that lead to even deeper social division.

What can be done?  And why am I writing about this in a blog devoted to spirituality?  While there are many dimensions of this dilemma, there is a deeply spiritual dimension as well.  Of all the teachings of Jesus, one that is clearest and least ambiguous is, “Fear is useless. What is needed is trust,” (Mark 5:36).  Fear causes us to fight or take flight.  It leads to knee-jerk reactions.  When fear becomes too great, it immobilizes us.  In the end, the fear of change is useless.  Jesus often talked about change in terms of nature and the seasons and always described change in a positive way.

Judgementalism of other’s positions won’t lead to forward movement in the change cycle.  Instead, empathy that acknowledges that change is difficult can be helpful.  Of course, to have a dialogue about change requires that people be open to that dialogue.  As long as any of us remain in deep trenches dug by our instance that we must be right at all cost, then there is no resolution to the tensions we experience in society.

Perhaps Buddhism is the clearest about change in its central doctrine of impermanence.  Everything is always changing.  Resisting change only causes suffering.  To stop our own suffering, we need to learn to move with the natural process of change.

Photo by Dushan and Miae on Wunderstock