The Seven Dynamics of Change

To implement changes at your company successfully, first understand how individuals react to change.

These seven dynamics of change illustrate how your employees will respond to new ideas and work processes:

1) People will feel awkward, ill-at-ease and self-conscious.

Change means doing something different, and as such, people will almost always react with some degree of discomfort. In fact, if you don’t feel awkward when you’re trying something new, you’re probably not really doing anything differently.

Say your organization is going to reorganize to allow for greater autonomy on the part of individual work groups. Initially, such a change will feel awkward to almost everyone involved, including individuals who will gain more autonomy, because everyone will have to think and act differently than they have in the past.

2) People initially focus on what they have to give up.

It’s human nature for an individual’s first reaction to a suggested change to be a personal sense of loss. To move forward you must deal with this sense of loss. It may seem silly, but individuals need to be given a chance to mourn feelings of loss, perhaps just by taking time to talk with others about how they feel.

In the case of increased autonomy, initially individuals are apt to react to what they are losing. Perhaps this will be staff resources they previously could count on for advice, or even the simplicity of a time when their roles were clearer and they could simply focus on putting in their hours and collecting their paychecks.

3) People will feel alone even if everyone else is going through the same change.

Again, it is human nature to have a “Why me?” attitude about change even if everyone around you faces the same thing. It is ironic that for the change to be successful, we need the support of others around us. In fact, often you will need to ask for such support.

Workers may feel a sense of individual punishment to have to learn new ways of working. If you want the change to be successful, you will need to recruit the help and understanding of those around you, many of whom will be feeling the same way you do.

4) People can handle only so much change.

Beyond a few changes, or only one if the change is significant, people become immobilized and may lose effectiveness. That’s why you need a clear plan and strategy for focusing your energy on the few things that will net you the greatest results in terms of desired behaviors.

In reorganization, work teams need to start by mutually deciding on simpler tasks, like jointly determining a work schedule, before they take on more extensive responsibilities regarding budgeting, personnel and disciplinary actions. They need first to have some successful experiences to build a momentum for using the new behaviors that you want to achieve.

5) People are at different levels of readiness for change.

Although most everyone will experience some resistance to change, some people will be able to get excited about a change more immediately, while others will dread and resist doing anything differently for as long as they can.

In the case of autonomous work groups, some individuals may quickly become excited about the chance to implement their own ideas, while most others will need to warm up to the new challenge and responsibilities. This doesn’t mean that one person is better than another, it just means people will have different outlooks and degrees of flexibility for what you are asking of them.

6) People will be concerned about enough resources.

Often in an organizational setting, as individuals are asked to do things differently, they may perceive that since they are being asked to do more, they need additional resources. Increasingly, however, in order to remain competitive in today’s markets, organizations must be more productive with fewer resources. Thus you’ll need to focus energy to get more done with fewer resources rather than to get more (and sometimes less) done with more resources.

In autonomous work units, individuals may have to accept additional responsibilities. They’ll need to work smarter to be able to do that well.

7) If you take the pressure off, people will revert back to their old behavior.

Typically, when the focus on a change effort ends, people tend to revert to what they were previously doing. Though it is natural, managers must counteract such behavior. The relapse is not the problem. Often when we revert back to old behaviors we simply ignore all we have learned. For change to be lasting it must be self-perpetuating. Managers must make it clear that there is no going back to the old days.

With the autonomous work group example, a company might change its compensation plan to reward new and desired team activities. When a relapse does occur, step back, take a deep breath and focus on the new benefits and positive gains you have achieved.