- People don’t follow change plans; they follow people they trust. And they won’t change unless it feels psychologically safe to do so.
- This is Principle 4 of my ‘REWIRE Model’, a brain-based toolkit to create lasting positive change in your team or organisation.
PRINCIPLE 4: SOCIAL COGNITION & PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
The brain is a profoundly social organ. It uses others’ behaviour as a shortcut for decision-making.
Social cognition networks, including medial prefrontal regions and temporoparietal areas, constantly evaluate social cues. During change, the brain asks two questions simultaneously: “Who like me is already doing this?” and “Is it safe to act this way?”
This means people are far more influenced by trusted peers, high-status individuals, and the visible behaviour of leaders than by formal communications or logic alone.
And leaders’ state matters more than leaders’ words. If leaders are visibly stressed, anxious, or appear out of control, their cortisol becomes contagious – and teams respond to this threat as if it’s their own (see Principle 1: Threat & Uncertainty Response).
And if psychological safety is low, people won’t raise concerns, admit mistakes, or challenge assumptions for fear of social punishment. This directly suppresses the learning, experimentation, and iterative behaviour that change depends on.
THE BOTTOM LINE
People don’t follow plans, they follow people they trust. They also take on the emotional state of the leaders around them. Leaders must role model desired behaviours, learn to regulate their emotions, and make it safe to challenge, struggle, and make mistakes.
WHAT TO DO
1) Leaders, both formal and informal, visibly role model desired behaviours.
Actions speak louder than words. People copy what they see far more than what they hear. If leaders ask for transparency while holding closed-door meetings, the brain registers hypocrisy and disengages.
2) Leaders, learn to regulate your emotional state
Assess leaders’ states and support them to build change readiness. Learn to regulate your nervous system to maintain calmness, composure and performance through pressure, change and ambiguity.
3) Assemble a diverse coalition of credible change champions.
The coalition must have genuine credibility and organisational influence. The brain quickly detects when “champions” lack real power or are merely performing compliance.
4) Conduct formal influence network mapping.
Identify who actually shapes day-to-day social norms, not just who holds formal authority. These are the people whose behaviour determines adoption.
5) Create collaborative opportunities to strengthen social bonds.
Change disrupts existing social networks – counteract this with structured opportunities for people to connect, problem-solve together, and support one another.
6) Create psychological safety: welcome resistance, openly share mistakes, be vulnerable.
Publicly state that mistakes during learning are expected and will not be punished. When resistance emerges, respond with curiosity, not defence.
DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS
- Are leaders visibly demonstrating the new behaviours themselves?
- Who is influential in setting the day-to-day social norm, and are they aligned?
- What emotional state are your leaders and managers in right now?
- Have you assembled a diverse, credible coalition with real power?
- Is it safe to ask questions, admit struggles, surface problems, and make mistakes?
- When resistance emerges, are you responding with curiosity or defence?
RED FLAGS TO WATCH OUT FOR
🚩 Leaders advocate for behaviours they don’t demonstrate themselves
🚩 Leaders are noticeably stressed, emotional or visibly under pressure
🚩 Middle managers report feeling “stuck in the middle” with no support
🚩 Questions dry up in public forums while back-channel conversations explode
🚩 Mistakes are punished subtly, with disappointment, exclusion from opportunities, even if not formally
🚩 Anonymous feedback reveals significantly more negativity than face-to-face conversations
YOUR TURN:
- What are your reflections on the above?
- Which diagnostic question resonated most?
- Which of the actions will you now implement?
