Change management cannot ignore emotions. Ignoring teams’ reluctance means missing the opportunity to build consensus. Engagement stems from active listening and the ability to recognize different points of view.
- Change is a complex and personal concept, with each individual interpreting it in their own way. It is the starting point for anyone working on organizational change, and while it may look like a tautology, every change has its own peculiarities.
- The emotional dimension is crucial in change management. People in leadership positions often feel initial euphoria, while those on the receiving end of change may feel powerless and resistant.
- The key is to build a bridge of understanding and support between leaders and employees, promoting listening, reassurance, and the highlighting of the opportunities change brings.
For several years now, I have enjoyed running a small experiment at the start of every meeting, asking people to share what change means to them. For anyone working on organizational change, this seems an obvious starting point. Among the many different answers, one has stuck with me in particular: change is change. At first glance it may sound like a tautological answer, a stylish way to escape the impasse of not knowing what to say — but it is nonetheless true that, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, every change is a change in its own way.
The 4 categories of organizational change
Campbell Macpherson, author and international Change Management expert, proposes a classification of organizational change that can serve as a useful map to navigate by.
At the intersection of two axes — the scale of the change and the level of individual control — four different categories emerge:
- Adapt, small changes over which people’s level of control is fairly limited. These are the changes that are part of our everyday lives, and which may concern procedures, spaces and company practices;
- Growth, i.e. all the processes of growth and development that we decide to embark on personally and over which we feel we have full control, such as exercising regularly, losing weight, or taking a training course;
- Quantum Leaps, large-scale changes that we undertake with the aim of changing our lives, both personally (moving house, relocating to another country) and professionally (moving to another company, taking a career leap);
- Burning Platform, the most complex context of change, in which, facing a highly pervasive transformation, one has the perception — objective or subjective — of an almost total absence of control.
In addition to giving us a guide to better understand the changes we may be dealing with, this categorization allows us to highlight one of the elements that is often underestimated when talking about Change Management: the emotional dimension of the people involved.
One change, different perspectives
Think of all the times you decided to bring about a major change, whether in your professional or personal life: what was the first emotion you felt? In all likelihood, you felt the thrill of joy announcing that a decision had been made, giving you the push you needed to go beyond that first step and build the future you had in mind. And happiness, in all its forms, is one of the emotions we learn to recognize as positive from childhood, as well as being an extremely social emotion: if you’re happy and you know it, you won’t be able to help sharing it with everyone around you. And so a person in a leadership position launching a change program becomes the best sponsor we could hope for: they will feel inside a strong desire to share with the entire workforce the reasons why this change really is the turning point, what its transformative impact on the organization’s future will be, and they will expect everyone to share their euphoria. Too bad, though, that reality is quite different from imagination.
Let’s try shifting our point of view, and think back to when a change happened in our life over which we had no control whatsoever. Back in 1970, the renowned Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross already spoke of how, faced with a bereavement, the first of the reactions we feel is a state of shock, in which we refuse what is happening to us and then deny that it is really happening. It is important to note that even a major organizational change, such as an acquisition by another company or corporate restructuring, presents us with the same dynamic as a bereavement: we are not losing a loved one, but we are giving up a part of our professional identity, and this too has quite an impact on our psyche. This explains what everyone who works in Change Management loves to repeat like a mantra: resistance is the most natural reaction to change.
A yellow brick bridge over the emotional divide
On one side, leaders bursting with joy, itching to spread it. On the other, people who see one change after another poured over them, overwhelmed by a spreading sense of powerlessness. Two factions that, at first careless glance, may look opposed and irreconcilable. And yet there is a secret shared by everyone who works in Change Management, one that anyone who has successfully navigated the field of change knows well: in reality, we are all in the same boat. Right after that first moment of euphoria, people in leadership positions start to see their dream meet reality, and euphoria then begins a downward curve which, passing through apprehension and fear, may lead to regret. Those instead who “undergo” (the quotation marks are deliberate) a change come to feel anger at the situation they are experiencing, and fear of an uncertain future can become paralyzing.
It is in this seemingly bleak and desolate space that the role of those who work with people must make itself felt. A little like in the magical land of Oz, where the yellow brick road leads to the wonder of the Emerald City, we can use those very same bricks to build a bridge that fills this gap and reconciles both sides. Let’s remind those in leadership positions that the simplest way to bring people along is by taking a listening stance, seeking to fully understand their point of view, and offering reassurance, wherever possible, about the future that awaits them. Let’s help the rest of the workforce shift their point of view, focusing on the added value change can bring rather than on what they fear losing, seizing opportunities for their own professional path. Easier said than done? Possible, but not impossible: because it is only when every level of the workforce is on board that the organization can truly set its course for the future, beyond the sea of change.