Be Ahead of Change (A Manager's Perspective)

The funny thing about people who resist change is that they seem to spend their time mostly looking forward to the past. As a manager, there is a need to develop some empathy about people's wish to cling to "what was" and to show them the benefits of moving into "what can be".

Steps

  1. Be aware that every change has a cost. This cost applies even to the front line managers charged with implementing the change event. The questions running through your mind possibly include: "What is it?", "How to I feel?" and it's possible that you're saying to yourself something like: "I can't assist others if I am still wrapped up in my own resistance level."
  2. Know your own feelings about the change ahead. Consider how you feel about the upcoming change and express it in your own words. Write down some key points of these feelings that you will be comfortable sharing with others later.
  3. Anticipate resistance. It is perfectly normal and it is simply part of the process. Expecting it means that you'll be prepared with ways to work around it.
  4. Explain the change to your team. Remember that you wrote down your feelings about the change? Now is a good time to share some of those feelings, along with how you have faced the concerns and have found the upcoming change to be a good outcome rather than a threat. After discussing the elements of change with your team, discuss with your team members one-to-one, so that you are giving individual attention to unique concerns. In advance, have reasons already prepared to talk about how the upcoming change will benefit the individual involved. If there is no benefit, be honest about what will happen and how the firm intends to support the person in question.
  5. Work with good business reasons. Have all the reasons ready and be specific and focused.
  6. Seek to reduce the uncertainty that often comes ahead of the change. Find ways to ease the transition, including being available for your staff members at any time. Be as transparent as you are able to be, and where there are confidential issues at stake, be assertive with your bosses about how to address the unknowns with your staff.
  7. Deal with the two common fears of change. These fears are: failure and loss of control. Appeal to a person's need and how the change will help him/her in the long run, or even the short term.
  8. Let the employee become involved. Allow time for questions, venting, both as a team and as individuals. Invite questions. Even if there are none, pose rhetorical ones about how people might be feeling and answer these. Make it clear that there is no such thing as a stupid questions and there is always a right time to ask questions.
  9. Acknowledge peoples' interpretations of the change event as valid.
  10. Create a reward system that is in proportion to the change event.
  11. Set up a system to monitor the impact of the change event.
  12. Communicate. At all times, keep the lines of communication to your employees open. Keep them updated on the change process as things unfurl.

Tips

  • Don't assume that because an employee says he/she is on board with the change event, they really are on board.

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