5 Stages of Engagement

A section about the psychological process of engaging with anything new or challenging.

There are a range of psychological and neuroscientific principles behind our approach to the future. My core assumption in this book is that our approach to the future is essentially rooted in anxiety and lack of control - fear is probably too strong a word. As such, the anxiety generated by the future tends to be something we try to avoid dealing with and generate many strategies to do so. Some of these strategies are 'innate' and common to us all and some more about personality.

There are many frameworks for engaging teams, staff etc. with change management processes, intended to take people through the "5 stages of engagement".

Engagement tools can be tailored to current mindsets, if known, but typically require a voluntary wish to be engaged with or at - based on an initial, existing desire to change. I believe this is fundamentally missing the point, especially if the reason for change involves external non-personal factors. A core requirement therefore is personal benefit due to change. Hence engagement tools are only part of the picture, learning techniques to become more 'future proof' can provide a desire for change, acknowledgement change may be needed and tools to create change.