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Darkness and Chaos
153
How We Respond to Change Matters
People respond to changes in many different ways, and how we, as
individuals, perceive change often determines how we react to it. In
general, any change to the status quo—a new situation, unexpected
event, or unmet expectation—is initially met with apprehension and
frustration, and is experienced as negative unless accompanied by adequate
forewarning and additional, reassuring, information.
Imagine that your company has decided to reorganize and you
are told that you will be getting a new boss and you will be asked to
perform a new job. How would you feel? You could find yourself going
through several emotions. Basic psychology tells us that when our
actions toward the things we want (technically called goal-directed behavior)
are blocked, interrupted, or delayed, we experience frustration.
The feeling of frustration drives a variety of subsequent
behaviors, which differ from person to person depending on his or
her personality and situational factors. The most prevalent response
to frustration, though, is anger or aggression toward those who are
changing our plans or getting in our way—yelling and complaining
are socially approved ways to express frustration, but overt physical
aggression is not unheard of. Other reactions to frustration include
the tendency to avoid those who are frustrating us (for example, by
calling in sick); the desire to escape the frustrating situation (for example,
by fantasizing about leaving the company); “regressive” behaviors,
such as feeling hopeless and wanting to cry; and physiological
and psychological stress. These initial frustration reactions are quite
natural, perhaps hard-wired into the makeup of most of us. Unfortunately,
none of these gut reactions really help us deal with the
change that caused our frustration in the first place. Instead, they
take energy that could be applied to the changed situation (in this example,
learning about our new boss and job) rather than dissipating
it in somewhat unproductive activities (in this example, anger, complaining,
and calling in sick).