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Today change seems to be the new normal. You are probably urged to take risks and be innovative. Everything is variable, and you have to be OK with it. You have to be able to be part of a team, but also ready to be self-sufficient in case you need to move on. Why is it still so painful?
One of the reasons it is still very difficult to manage is because usually, most managers consider only what the employees may rationally need to do their work throughout the change, but not many worry much yet about what the employee may need emotionally.
Some challenges employees face before the change occurs include:
- Fear of the unknown
- Loneliness: Not feeling heard in preparation for or during the change management to share fears and struggles
- Battle fatigue: after struggling many times before during previous changes. For instance, when companies promote “the flavor of the month’s initiatives”, they tend to frustrate employees and make them less eager or excited to commit to change. They know the change will not be supported by the next manager, so they simply resist it until it is no longer needed
- Anxiety about the future and depression about whet is left behind
- Grief
Change is like grieving a dear family member, you need to let go of something you loved, something you were used to: a team, a role, an office or even a salary. Nobody enjoys grieving, it is a hard process that cannot be rushed, that’s why it is so difficult for teams to overcome change. The process of grieving is often described as having stages or cycles. People may go through the stages in different sequences and go back and forth as they process loss and adjustment.
First, you deny the change exists and try to continue with your routine. But there are signs everywhere that demonstrate things are not the same, and that drives anger. You keep fighting to get back to how things were before, but you soon realize that you can’t.
That’s when confusion starts. You don’t know what to do now, because this change wasn’t in your plans. You feel guilty, unable to act, and, therefore, become a bit depressed. You fall into a black hole that paralyzes and isolates you from everyone else until you reach the peak of the crisis. In the stage of crisis, you don’t know what to do or how to get help. Maybe someone reaches out to you in a different way and helps you see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe so much time on your own helps you see things differently.
Change management
Eventually, you learn to accept the change. Acceptance is when you begin to be OK with what happened (accept what we cannot change), take responsibility for what you can do next, and move on. You gain new confidence to work toward accomplishing new tasks. Most importantly, you are willing to change our behavior in response to what is new and required in the new circumstance.
The question is, how hard you want this acceptance process to be? Just like when grieving, you can always look for a coach, companion, or accountability partner that can help you deal with your fears, biases, and worries, and make the inevitable journey much easier and more productive. Here are also four steps that can help you normalize change and learn to work around it. Enjoy it!
