The book The Social Cognitive Neuroscience of Leading Organizational Change, by Robert A. Snyder, focuses on change management. Change management and human performance are directly related. Dr. Snyder summarizes recent research in social cognitive neuroscience but within a narrative of personal anecdotes to provide action items for leaders going through organizational change. This new research challenges beliefs and myths about human motivation and behavior. He then gives context and makes the case for following the principles he presents.
The book touches on all the unseen, less obvious reasons for poor performance amid organizational change and how a manager can be sensitive and change the culture of an organization in a positive way. One of the most beneficial things emphasized in the book is having a metaphor or story for the organizational change and communicating it frequently at every level. The book states that there are as many reasons to resist change as there are employees.
When evaluating employees or implementing change, any information that the employee perceives as a threat to their self-image will be information the employee does not retain. When implementing a change in performance, communicate the behaviors that are expected early and often, consistently with a plan, and model those behaviors. Give consistent and continuous feedback on performance and how it aligns with the standards. The book talks about helping employees realize the need for change on their own because change is more likely if they conclude that there is a need for change themselves.
The book says that most people do not know what is expected of them in their jobs. From experience, I can say that most jobs I have had have been, to some degree, ambiguous. According to the research, this ambiguity leads to mistrust, making it more difficult for employees to implement change and performance improvements. For training to be effective, and lead to performance improvement, it needs to be focused on specific communication behaviors like conflict resolution or performance coaching, not general communication.
The intended context of this book is an organization going through a major change such as a merger or new technology. The author backs up the information with many studies and data points and cites other researchers. Because of this, I believe the information is very reliable. Though I believe the information to be reliable, it seems like researchers and business people are still making a lot of presumptions about what happens in the brain. The science is very new. So, even though the research and data are sound, it just does not have a long track record. There is still a lot to learn.
This book will apply to me professionally in the future. I would like to work in professional and organizational development. This book is all about making people and organizations better, and improving performance, by applying social cognitive neuroscience research. The book had great talking points for framing discussions regarding poor performance and how to coach people toward better performance. I will apply this directly to the training that I create.
References:
Snyder, R. A. (2016). The social cognitive neuroscience of leading organizational change. Routledge.