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Leading change: Start by acknowledging the comfort zone

This week, I’m in Boston with a wonderful group of leaders in the final module of an extended leadership program. One of the sessions was led by Scott Keller and Carolyn Aiken of McKinsey & Company. Scott warmed up the group with an interesting exercise that you might be able to use with your teams when you’re introducing change. He began by acknowledging that the day was going to be different – the chairs were arranged in a circle (non-traditional setup), the session was going to be led entirely without power point slides (how does that work?), and he promised to challenge them – a lot (yikes!). You could see the participants moving toward cynicism and skepticism. 

Scott then moved to the flip-chart and drew a circle on the page and titled it the Comfort Zone. He asked people how they feel when they’re in their comfort zone, and got the usual answers: confident, calm, self-assured, at ease, comfortable. After writing those words inside the circle, he asked: “how do you feel when you’re not in your comfort zone?” The participants threw out unsettled, panicky, defensive, tense, uneasy, worried, uncomfortable, etc. Scott wrote those words outside the circle, and also pointed out that sometimes people feel other emotions when they’re outside their comfort zone – excited, open-minded, creative, etc. Everyone agreed this accurately reflected the concept of comfort zone – how we feel when things are the way we like them (good, safe), and how we feel when things are new and different (concerned, anxious).

Then Scott brought his point home with this question: “where does adult learning happen?” Ah – the hook! The group agreed that learning seems to happen best when they’re pushed out of their comfort zone – when they’re presented with new information, or something different. Scott used that collective a-ha to request that the group have an open mind about the room set-up, the dialog process, and the level of personal sharing that would be required today. 

With this simple exercise, he did two very important things: 1) he acknowledged the discomfort people might have been feeling (expressing empathy), and 2) turned the responsibility for learning and change over to them (assigning accountability). Within 5 minutes, he took a group that might have been feeling uncomfortable and turned that discomfort into an meaningful environment for learning & change. 

As a leader, try laying out this simple framework for your teams. Get them involved in acknowledging that learning and change happens best when we’re out of our comfort zones. You may find it easier to lead change if you introduce this concept and invite people to step outside their normal routines and patterns.