Activation energy is a concept from chemical reactions.

The concept of enthalpy in physics tells us that objects in the universe tend towards their lowest energy state. This can be as simple as a ball returning to earth after being thrown in the air or a substance condensing from gas to liquid.

Now, obviously there are some occasions where this principle seems to be broken. Carbon, for example can exist in various stable forms, such as graphite, diamond and C60. All three forms cannot have the lowest energy state, so how does this work?

Essentially the various forms have the lowest local energy state, and there are barriers that prevent the substance from freely moving to the other possible states. For example, carbon is strictly more stable as graphite than as diamond. However the reason that your jewellery doesn't decay into pencil lead is that the crystal structures are quite different and energy is required to get the atoms in the structure to re-arrange themselves. The reaction will still produce a small energy 'profit', by giving off more than you put in, but it requires (a large amount of) energy to be put in to get the reaction going in the first place - to activate it.

This spike of energy that separates different states is known as the activation energy and it will divide two states, even if one is obviously more preferable than the other.

This process carries interesting analogies to other situations, in particular, other change processes. The change from A>B might lead one to the more desirable state B, but people might still not change. This seems counter-intuitive and often people involved in change will assume that these 'resistant' people must simply not have got it and explain the desirability of B or the horribleness of A again and again.

A classic example of this type of transition is giving up smoking. Everyone who's not been living in a remote cave for the last 50 years knows that it is more desirable in many ways to not smoke. However, people still persist in smoking, much to the frustration of campaigners. The reaction of many is to underline the hazards of smoking, and the benefits to be had from giving up.

Smokers know this already, so nothing is changed. The resistance to moving from one state to the other is that this transition is not free, but rather passes over a large hump. This hump is the energy required to go through the giving up and life-change process.

As in the chemical reaction, this hurdle is only overcome by the input of sufficient energy from the outside to overcome this barrier and activate the reaction.

Thus, in the design of change processes one can look at ways of supplying this energy to keep the reaction going. This might be anything from weighing yourself everyday to see how much weight you've lost in your diet to support groups or coaching.

What is chosen will be specific to the individual and the circumstances, the important point is to recognise that this hump exists in change processes and that energy needs to be supplied to overcome it.



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