As previously we discussed workplace change, change can be difficult in the workplace for both employees and managers. While change can bring about positive progress in a company, overcoming the stress, anxiety, and resistance can be a hard summit to climb. A good manager/leader will need tools to help lead their team to through the impact of change.
To best understand strategies of leading your organization through a time of change, we must break down change into phases. This will allow you to best understand your employees and management’s feelings and behaviors during a period of change.
The six stages of change can best be described as a bell curve. We’re all familiar with the shape and understand the low and high end of it. Imagine the low end of your “stages of change” bell curve as the lowest point. This is stage occurs at the announcement of change and is aptly labeled “shocked.” Your employees will likely experience an overwhelming sense of fear and exhibit a paralyzed or numb reaction.
As the information has a chance to really sink in, we move into stage #2, “Confusion.” Thoughts begin to race, confusion sets in and the foremost question in everyone’s mind is “Why?” and they resulting behaviors tend toward close-mindedness and suspicion. Moving right along, we find ourselves in the “Resistant” stage. Stage #3 can be a difficult one to navigate for even the best-trained managers because with it comes anger and frustration that often is displayed with behavior like blaming and defiance, leading us straight into the beginning of the upturn on our bell curve into stage #4, “Discouragement.” The quiet withdrawal and potentially subsequent absenteeism or unproductiveness may seem disheartening to even the best of managers, but hold tight, you’re almost through it.
Good training can help a leader navigate their team through stage four on onto stage #5 “Adaptability” with little difficulty. While moving from that sense of confusion to hopefulness and positive energy can be a bit harried, it’s a positive sign that progress is being made. Continued use of the strategies for change will result in a powerful push to stage #6 “Integration.” By this point, your team has reached the summit and the view is grand. They are renewed and positive and comfortable with the change. You’ll see a greater wave of openness and contribution getting the team back into a place of productive and positive movement.
To understand what triggers the stages of change, it’s important to explain why people resist change in the first place. Some examples are:
- The purpose or need for change seems unclear
- The majority or employees or supervisors don’t believe change is necessary
- Employees aren’t involved in the planning stages
- Poor communication- especially when the change is not explained properly
- Changes occur at a pace not appropriate for the implementation of said change
- The change seems a threat to job security, position, responsibility, or peer relationships
- There is a lack of trust or respect between management and employees