So the word has come down, things are going to be different around here. It’s a restructure, it’s a new business model, a new system, a new anything. You don’t understand it, you didn’t approve it and you are not sure that you like it…so how do you buy in to the new thing?
It’s possible to engage in change on a variety of levels, that first emotional response to the news that leaves us feeling a sense of loss, fear for the future, irritation that things just seem to keep changing (and for no apparent reason). Once you get past the emotional response, you are in a position to explore the change from an intellectual perspective.
Here are four quick hints to getting your head around the change.
- Understand why the change is happening, what has driven it and the best possible outcome as a result of that change
- Understand how the change can add value to your role, make things easier, make things better (in fact ask yourself if you would have planned that change given half a chance)
- Understand how the change can challenge and develop you, identify ways that the change will take you in the direction you want to go
- Understand how the change will help the important things stay the same, identify the things which are not changing as a result of the new initiative
If you can’t understand (or agree with) why the change is happening, if you can’t find personal and organisational value from the change, if you won’t develop in the new world and if the really important things will be lost as a result of the change – then don’t embrace it – get the hell outta there!
Meg Johnstone
I agree with your comments here. I have been involved in imposed changes in several jobs and the last one I was in a role where I was part of the solution to transition people through the changes. From my experiences, the transitional period between the old and the new is the most critical area to support people. I believe the success in bringing people along for the journey and getting them to shift the way they do business is to engage them in the whole process and make sure that it isn’t change for changes sake. Listen to their ideas and validate their views. Coach managers through the changes so they have the confidence to then go and support their teams. That works. Don’t leave people out on a limb assuming they will be ok. They wont be! Without a really well thought out transition plan, the whole process becomes stressful and painful. Just my thoughts, Meg
Lisa
Love your thoughts! I do think that organizations can be doing a lot more to take people with them on change processes but I am also very interested in what individuals can do in order to find some joy in the change around them. I haven’t yet seen a perfect plan for change but the best things I have seen are where people work together through the ambiguity, through the pain and have an optimistic view on what the future could look like. I am also really interested in the idea that it is better to leave if you cant engage in change rather than staying and making yourself and eveyone around you miserable!