THE PROCESS OF CHANGE

 

Have you ever been involved in any significant change effort? I suppose we all have from time to time. Some examples that come to mind include going to college, changing jobs, merging with another company, getting married, moving, etc. One change effort that I get to see is when an organization embarks on a continuous improvement journey.

 

If it is done well, the leadership of the organization plans and learns as much as they can before beginning such an undertaking. They gently but purposefully inform their employees on what they are about to embark . To the best of their ability, they express their sincere concern and understanding that what is about to take place will be troubling occasionally. The leaders are very sensitive to what employees are saying and feeling at all times. Communication efforts are redoubled.

 

Additionally, one of the most important things the leaders know is that the organization and individuals will go on a bit of a roller coaster ride as far as their expectations about the change are concerned. Below is a graph of expectations that describes what can happen when significant change is introduced.

 

 

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In the ideal case for “positive change,” you can see from the graph that there is generally initial enthusiasm. This is when you have some people who are genuinely anxious to make change, when some people have yet to really think about what change is going to mean to them, and when you have people who say, “I’ve been through this before. This too will pass.” But soon reality sets in for everyone. When the difficulty and understanding of the required change begin to set in, expectations begin to plummet. This is when people are really beginning to assess how the change will affect them.

 

In the ideal “positive change” world, the organization bottoms out and begins its climb from its worst fears about change. In fact the folks in this world climb to a level of expectations even higher than the initial level of enthusiasm at the beginning of the process.

 

Sometimes, however, the organization gets stuck near the bottom, and as a result it is worse off than if the leaders hadn’t initiated a change. They are now in the state of “failed change.” Leaders must be very vigilant and see that this doesn’t happen. One way they can see that the organization doesn’t get stuck is to be listening very carefully to their employees. Depending what they hear, they must respond to address the concerns based on what level the employee is in the change cycle.

 

This past year, I was involved in helping a company move from one computer system to another. When I entered the scene, the project was one year over due. I began attending the weekly computer transition team meetings. After the first meeting, I suggested that we use a Consensogram to learn where the team thought we were in making the move to the new computer system. (This is done by asking each team member to put his/her level of readiness to go live on a “post it” note -- 0 to100% in 10% increments.)

 

The graph below shows the feeling of the group over time. It is a classic change curve, and it was very helpful to everyone to visualize what was going on -- to know that this was normal.

 

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So if you are in the midst of a significant change or about to embark on one, keep the change curve in mind. Remember that your employees will be at different levels of expectation as you make the journey, and that they will need to be treated differently depending on where they are.