Why humans love change

Posted by Kirsten Gibbs
Last updated 15th April 2022
reading time

  • Listening to 'In our time' this morning, I heard that one of the reasons our ancestor Homo Erectus emerged could be that the Rift Valley environment around them started to change relatively rapidly and unpredictably as a result of volcanic activity.

    This created a new evolutionary 'niche' - for a species that was able to efficiently switch between environments rather than adapt efficiently to just one.  Walking upright, sociality and speech are just some of the outcomes.

    In other words, we've evolved to live in the midst of change.

    To be sure, most of us prefer our change to be evolutionary rather than sudden and drastic, but I bet there's hardly anyone you know that hasn't undergone some sort of major shift (changed job, changed marital or parental status, moved house) in the last five years.  We are programmed to explore possibilities, see opportunities, to talk about new things, to try them out - with others if we can.

    Why then do corporates have such a problem with change management?

    Because we're human.   We love change but we prefer to do it ourselves, than have it done to us.

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