Within almost every change project, we are seeking new behaviours in ourselves or in others. And yet, many of our behaviours are unconscious.

Our brains love habits, repetitive actions that can be automatically programmed in our unconscious as they require less thought and effort. This allows us to function and includes actions such as breathing and our heart pumping, but it also includes actions like our reactions to other people and aspects of how we do our job.

Therefore one of the key aspects of change is bringing the unconscious into the conscious.

This can be done by writing down literally everything you do – an activity log of sorts. Most software programmes do this automatically but they only capture what happens in the software, but the principle of capturing all the different steps can be brought to the non-tech world. This is critical as often learn about all the subtle work arounds we and our co-workers do every day.

It is in these everyday actions, often unconscious actions, where culture is created. It is here where we find the ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’ and ‘this is the proper way of doing things’. And it is here where change can occur.

Photo by Gian D.