# Choice is the key to change

- **Episode:** [116](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/116.md) (2024-07-20)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** choice, change-management, employee-engagement
- **Time:** 8:14–14:21 (start 494s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/116?t=494](https://truthliesandwork.com/116?t=494)

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[8:14] Leanne Elliott: Choice, it really is the key to change. Very few people actively like change at work, but as Hilary said, when they feel like they have some control over the change, then it much more likely to work better. Control and choice is a really well-researched area of human behaviour, but there are 3 headlines that are worth knowing about in the context of change at work. The first is locus of control, developed by Julian Rotter in the 1960s. This concept differentiates between internal and external locus of control— loci of control, I want to say
[8:49] Al Elliott: Yeah, that sounds about right
[8:50] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. So people with an internal locus of control believe they can influence their life outcomes through their actions. They have the power, while those with an external locus of control feel that their lives are controlled more by external factors like fate or people around them. Our perceived locus of control can change based on our environment. So workplaces that provide employees with autonomy, responsibility, and opportunities for decision-making tend to promote an internal locus of control, and this is important because research shows us consistently that an internal locus of control is associated with higher motivation, better stress management, and improved mental health. The second concept that is important in this context is self-efficacy. This was proposed by Albert Bandura, and self-efficacy is a belief in our abilities to succeed in specific situations, like a significant change at work. So high self-efficacy is a real energy source for for us. It enhances motivation and resilience, enabling us to tackle challenges more effectively. And how do we boost self-efficacy? Well, giving employees autonomy or choice over how they accomplish tasks can enhance it, as employees will feel their actions have a direct impact on the outcome. But of course, we can have too much of a good thing, which brings us to our final concept of choice and control, which is choice overload. Choice overload is when we're presented with too many options. If the number of options becomes overwhelming, then we may struggle to make decisions at all, and this is called decision paralysis. It can delay actions and responses and ultimately hinder our ability to adapt to new situations quickly. So yeah, it's a delicate balance. We need to give people choice and control and confidence that they can make decisions, but not too much. much. And that's the understanding, the psychology of change, the psychology of decision-making. That is why it is really, really important
[10:45] Al Elliott: There's an old adage in business: people hate to be sold to but love to buy. And that's the crux of what we're talking about here. When someone feels like they've got control over the outcome, even if this is perceived control, then it's much more likely they'll be invested. So here's the not-so-secret secret: by including your team in the suggested changes, you'll have much better chance of things going smoothly. Like Leanne said, all of this is down to psychology, but not many of us normals— that's me, not Leanne, she's a superstar— not many of us normals have fully grasped this yet. So I had to ask Hilary, what else are we getting wrong about human psychology and how the brain works? And also, what the heck is a social brain? What do people mainly get wrong when they think about how the brain works?
[11:29] Hilary Scarlet: There's the myths around, you know, do we only use 10% of our brain? No, we use all of, all of our brains. But that said, it's interesting, the brain's capacity to keep on learning is certainly there. So I guess that's, yeah, I think that's again good news for all of us, that capacity to keep on learning, whatever it might be. So I guess one of the other interesting areas is just how much energy the brain uses. I think that's another one to be aware of, is that our brains are 2% of our body weight, but they use up 20% of our—
[11:59] Leanne Elliott: Energy
[12:01] Hilary Scarlet: energy. And it's almost as if our brains know that they use this disproportionate amount of energy. So again, it goes back to that point about our brains. If they can, they quite want to be lazy and like habits. But just being aware of that sheer amount of energy that brains use. And I think just on that point also, one of the neuroscientists I work with reckons we've only got 2 great hours a day in terms of the And he's got a point, probably no one would put it more than 4 great hours. So just being aware of mental energy, how you top it up, not pushing on through, I think, as many of us try and do, get to our desk in the morning, especially I think if we're working from home, that important thing about getting outside, getting into nature, having breaks. So the importance of, you know, just, you know, what kind of decisions are you trying to make at the end of a day when your brain's already quite tired and quite frazzled?
[12:51] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[12:52] Hilary Scarlet: There's some other really interesting research actually about blood sugar levels. I think, you know, we think about all sorts of things that affect our decision-making, but another really interesting experiment done by Dan Sieger and team where they looked at over 1,000 decisions that were being made by judges, people coming before them for parole. And they could see it vary between about 0% and 70%, your chance of getting parole. And initially they thought it was all to do with circadian rhythm, so time of day. And then they realized, no, it's more frequent than that. It was going up and down much more often than that. And then they realized it was what was probably connected was when the judge had last eaten. So if you were before the judge at 9:00 AM in the morning and the judge has had his or her breakfast, you had about a 70% chance of getting parole. It dropped down, dropped down, and dropped down to about 11. The judge had a break, had a cup of coffee, had something to eat, went back up to 70%, then dropped down, dropped down, dropped down before lunch, and then back up again after lunch. And it's just the suggestion that— It's not to say which decisions are right or wrong, but it's just interesting impact of things like blood sugar levels on our decision-making. And the thinking being when our blood sugar levels are low, we are less likely to take risks. So I think there's interesting implications for all of us at work in that sense. If we're interviewing people, if we're doing people's appraisals, whatever it might be, are we being as fair to the person we see at 11:00 AM as perhaps the person we saw at 9:00 AM? So just being aware of these things that might be influencing our decision-making. without us even being aware of it. I think that is really useful