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Change Management is a defined system of tools, processes, and actions designed specifically to help address a challenge and minimize the stress of completing the change.
People tend to resist change, even when the reason for “the new” is compelling and for the greater good of the company. As humans, we prefer familiarity and a stable environment. It is the unknown, the uncertainty about the change, that we find stressful and challenging – and changes in the workplace are no different. In the absence of information and details about the change, people “go to the dark side” and make up their own facts about the change, which are usually incorrect. A colleague shared this story with me: they were engaged late in the process to work with a client who had not employed any change management to support consolidating two offices; after discussing the upcoming change with employees, stories like this emerged:
My company is consolidating two locations into one; therefore, we’ll all be working together under one roof; therefore, people with the same job will be working together; therefore, there will be redundancies; therefore, I will be fired.
Given the state of business today and our ever-changing work experiences, organizations cannot afford the potential loss of focus, productivity, and even collaboration when their employees exert so much mental energy on inaccurate assumptions such as “I will be fired” based only on one somewhat complete fact – “we’re consolidating two offices.” Once an individual has arrived at their own conclusion – I will be fired – it is incredibly difficult and takes even more energy to change that belief and turn it into a positive – my team will get so much more done when we’re working together.
Why Is Change So Scary?
So, why is change such a scary topic for humans? Research indicates that it’s part of our basic nature – a duality of thought – fight or flight – that is inherent in all of us. Psychiatrists have been exploring this idea since the early 1900s. It is core to Sigmund Freud’s theory 1 of the conscious, rational Ego and the unconscious, emotional Id. Carl Jung 2 explored this further, stipulating the idea of integrating opposites and what he termed the collective conscious and unconscious. Moving forward to today, John Haidt’s Happiness Hypothesis3 proposes the “elephant and the rider” model to explain this duality as the struggle for control between the unconscious, emotion – the large and powerful elephant – and the conscious, logic - the small and less powerful rider. The three theories of the human conscious have a clear connection:
How Do We Face Change?
Balancing this duality of thought is the challenge we all must deal with in the face of change; this is important because we want to make decisions using the rational part of our brain. When this isn’t in balance and our emotions take over, it can be extremely stressful; this is exacerbated when we are not provided with details about the change – why it is happening, what the personal impact will be, and how the change will take place. So, you may ask yourself, how can we change this perception and encourage humans to not resist the change? What can we do as an organization to better communicate the change and the great impact it will have on the workplace? It starts by clearly defining the project goals and providing transparent communication that makes employees feel safe, heard, and valued. By doing so, you will have addressed the change, minimized the stress, and have provided answers for the unknown, allowing for minimal to no speculation.