Change: getting on ... and getting on together

Change: getting on together... and getting on together

Not wanting to overly ring dry the issue of change, and how it effects us all in different ways, but having been present in a couple of recent change related meetings that seemed generally fraught and at times openly antagonistic, I thought it might be useful to look a bit more at the effects change (sometimes unwanted, at least initially) has on us all.

It left me thinking about two issues:

Firstly, I thought about how people who face the prospects of what might for them be unwanted change will often feel insecure and anxious about it's prospect. 

I then went on to think about the well established, although admittedly simplistic model of the 'Hierarchy of Psychological Needs' by Abraham Maslow, who has been labelled as the grandfather of positive psychology (I have a copy of the original 1943 paper, and although it is now often rightly criticised in more academic psychology circles, to me it still seems pertinent and keenly insightful - I often see these psychology states at play in myself!). 

This tiered model of psychological need places the creation of psychological security just one step above the fulfilment of basic physiologic need (i.e. feeling safe is what we as humans will prioritise after gaining access to air, water, food, etc). This means, according to this model, that we can't generally move on to developing positive relationships with others (the next stage up) if we currently feel threatened or highly anxious i.e. when we are more likely to be in the 'fight or flight' state of mind. In these situations we tend to become defensive, both of ourselves as individuals, and often of our current roles or ways of being. 

The second issue I thought about was how stress (a cumulative, unconscious process) and anxiety/worry (a conscious, issue focused process) reduces our cognitive processing performance and efficiency. According to a theoretical model outlined in a paper on 'Anxiety and Cognitive Performance' by Eysenck et al (2007) ... 'Worry has two effects. One effect involves cognitive interference by pre-empting the processing and temporary storage capacity of working memory.' 

The second effect of this negative emotional state is on executive function i.e. it impairs our decision making processes. To me this seems highly plausible: why, because I think that it clearly describes the effects I tend to feel myself when stressed - I can't think as quickly or as clearly as usual, my access to my working memory seems to be impaired, and I struggle to effectively decide what to do! 

So what of these observations: well I suppose they lead me to think that during my now not inconsiderable working life, my best work has always been done when I have felt part of a collaborative effort i.e. working as part of, or from within, a supportive and socially cohesive team. Doing what can be at times stressful and emotionally demanding work is made easier, and over the longer term more emotionally manageable, when I have felt that I have had the general support of the other team members - or a least a feeling that they understood me, and appreciated what I was trying to achieve (even if the didn't always agree with what I did, or the way I did it). 

So in my experience spending time on developing effective working relationships has paid dividends in increased individual and collective productive capacity - so we need to 'get on' (socially) to 'get on' (productively), although there is admittedly something of a 'virtuous circle' effect in these two things.

But finally, the cognitive/emotional issues I have noted above i.e. that stress and anxiety/worry can seriously inhibit cognitive performance, memory access and executive function (well it does for me) - I think that these same issues are very often at play when working to support people with a communication and/or social impairment. I often think about how people's cognitive impairment is likely to be significantly exacerbated by conditions of high stress/anxiety, a state not unusual in many of the people I work with who have severe or profound intellectual disabilities and/or autism. 

So how then do we help them? One way would be to be positively socially responsive to them in non-anxiety causing ways ... and how might we do that I hear you ask ... well, most probably through a sensitive process of socially validating, and positive rapport building, Intensive Interaction!