Our brain is trying to protect us and it likes to be able to predict things. If it can predict what will happen, it can help us avoid harm.
Being able to predict things is also efficient – we can make decisions quicker without having to think every situation through. We can do things on autopilot and save mental energy.
In times of uncertainty, our brains cannot predict what will happen and we feel uncomfortable. Our brain uses energy trying to go through all the possible futures there may be. The Covid19 pandemic has raised the threat/stress levels for most people, not just because of the real physical dangers, but because of the uncertainty it brings. Will I still have a job next month? Can I survive financially? When can things get back to normal?
Studies have shown we feel better having a certain negative future than an uncertain one. For example, a study by Wiggins et al (1992) showed that people with parents who had Huntingdon’s disease, and who therefore might have inherited it themselves, were better off having the test and finding out for sure, one way or the other, rather than live with the uncertainty of not knowing.
And this is one of the main reasons organisational change can be so threatening. When a change is announced our expected future is disrupted, our brains become unable to predict, and this sends us into the threat response. In times of change you need people to be working at their best, making good decisions and finding the best way forward, but the threat response means their minds are distracted and their thinking is impaired. Scarlett (2019) describes it like this:
“The adult brain in a threat response is much like that of a teenager – quick to get angry and emotional, hard to reason with. So an organization going through change is like an organization being run by a group of teenagers.”
Organisations can counter this by creating as much certainty as possible. Give a clear timeline for what you’re planning to do and when, for example, and stick to it. And make the process quick, to lessen the time people are in this uncertain state.
So if you’re a leader, be empathetic to the problems uncertainty causes for the human brain and do what you can do to create more certainty for those around you.
References
Scarlett, H. (2019) Neuroscience for Organizational Change: An Evidence based Practical Guide to Managing Change, 2nd ed., London: Kogan Page Ltd
Wiggins, S et al (1992) “The psychological consequence of predictive testing for Huntington’s disease”, New England Journal of Medicine, 327 (20), pp 1401–05