Overcome your fear of change, Britain. Or get left behind.

25% of Brits claim to be too scared to try anything new. 50% of Brits claim to hate change of any sort. And 71% claim to find change hard to cope with. * It seems that us Brits really do know what we like, and we like what we know.

Over 9 million of us have eaten the same breakfast every day for at least the last 5 years. And over 40 million of us go back to the same holiday destination repeatedly because we like knowing what to expect.

It might also explain our national love of a cosy tradition. Wimbledon. Sunday roasts. Queues. Antiques Roadshow. Talking about the weather. The FA Cup. IPA. Fish & Chips. The National Trust. The Grand National. The Royal Family…

All rather harmlessly charming until you consider it in the context of accelerating global change and our economic need to stay at the forefront of that change. Then it becomes a bit of a worry. Particularly if you’re running a business. How on earth are you going to get all your colleagues to embrace the changes that are currently sweeping through the workplace, with an open mind?

As it stands, according to the stats, you’re not. Our national conservatism is inhibiting our collective ability to make progress. **

To make matters worse, change has always been notoriously hard to land in any business. Everyone starts off with good intentions, lots of corporate branded fluff, and rousing speeches. Lovely. But the human brain has a frustrating habit of defaulting to known behaviours at the first opportunity because we find it reassuring.

But don’t worry, business leaders. Keep breathing into the paper bag, it’s going to be ok. There is a proven resource that you already have at your disposal, you just haven’t harnessed it yet. *** That resource is Creativity. A business superpower that fosters resilience, adaption, and the confident pursuit of new outcomes.

It’s why creativity has become the most valued business skill today according to The World Economic Forum’s report on jobs.****

‘But I’m not creative’. How often do hear that said? And often with a certain pride. As if floppy-fringed creativity couldn’t possibly be something your average business titan gave the time of day to. Well, whether you like it or not, we’re all born creative. So, you may as well make the most of it now that everyone is suddenly realising how useful it is. But it does need to be developed to enable you to reach your creative potential. Just like any other innate skill. Take music for example. We all have the ability to be musical, but that doesn’t mean that you can sit down at a piano without any practice and bang out a faultless rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in E Flat Major.

The greater your desire to improve, the better your coach, the more you apply yourself, the higher your chances of success.

To say though, that you can teach creativity is not strictly speaking true. You can only teach people how not to be creative. Evolution, society, education, the workplace, life, have all done a sterling job in helping us to unlearn it. They tell us how to think, how to behave, how to fit in. The opposite of what the modern world is now demanding of us.

But you can learn tools and techniques, behavioural nudges, to increase your creative confidence, to call it up when and where you need it most. *****

By giving your team the right behavioural tools to embrace change you will help them to see that not only is their fear of change unfounded, but challenging the status quo actually becomes a rush. That being unreasonable is exciting. Uncertainty is intoxicating. Failure is fabulous. New and different is 100%. And by making those tools bespoke to their working environment you are setting them up for success. So, whether it’s adapting to AI, new working processes, a structural reorg, entering new markets, or developing new products, they’ll be ready for it.

It's time to face down that fear of change, Britain, embrace creativity, and start some new traditions.

References:

* https://www.freeagent.com/company/press-room/fear-of-change-research/

** https://www.ft.com/content/ca619b11-283a-4845-938a-c2300fd8eb5f

*** https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/importance-of-creativity-in-business

**** https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/

***** https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/creativity-best-untapped-resource/food-for-thought/article/1728453