Nostalgia Hinders Change | Episode 026

One thing that can stop the wheel of change is nostalgia. There is such a mind trap, in which we remember all the wonderful moments from the past. In the present and the forthcoming change, we see mostly the negative ones.

There is a term for this. It's called "declinism." It is a compensatory mechanism of our mind to deal with the present by idealizing the past. This creates a sense of stability from the past. But there is also the negative side effect of artificially sweetened nostalgia.

The emergence of nostalgia for the old days in the teams means two things:

1) People are already of pre-retirement age;

2) People are bored at work. The work environment is the same. There are no working incentives to engage. That doesn't mean there's no enough work. On the contrary. There is a lot of work, but monotonous one;

If both things are combined - people are elderly, and their work is monotonous, it is only natural that the people are nostalgic about the past. Hence the resistance to change.

Junior managers may think that making changes in such cases is done with firing people. This is a quick but not sustainable solution.

Sustainable change in teams does not happen with a change OF people, but with a change IN people. The fast firing of people is more of a sign of managers' leadership deficits. Of course, there are exceptions.

The next question is: "What can bring about a change in people to bring about a change in companies?".

The answer is a little above in the text. We cannot change the age of people. But the incentives for change in work can change. From there, to change the attitude towards change.

1) What is the healthy relationship between nostalgia and fantasy?

2) What do you need to change to maintain a healthy relationship between nostalgia and fantasy? First in yourself? Then in the team?

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Book "Park Your Ego: Face Your Bullsh*t and Own It" by Plamen Petrov on Amazon - https://amzn.to/38VW3He