Generally speaking, we prefer to endure more pain for the sake of having control.
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Change can be done in a moment’s notice. It is an event. We change cars, partners, and jobs. Transition takes longer and varies from person to person. It is a process. This is the emotional aftermath incurred by the change.
While not all changes at work are unfavorable, there are usually a handful of employees who feel a sense of loss. Almost all anxiety can be distilled down to two variables:
1) what we don’t know;
2) what we can’t control.
You may have heard about the social science experiment in which people were given the choice between an electric shock now that’s twice as painful as one they would receive randomly within the next 24 hours. As you can imagine, the majority of people chose more pain now as opposed to less pain at some unpredictable time in the near future. Generally speaking, we prefer to endure more pain for the sake of having control.
Mystery creates anxiety, especially when we feel we have no influence on the situation. But once you know the emotional building blocks of anxiety, you can begin to influence them.
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Coping with Change
Whether it’s transitioning through grief, receiving negative feedback, or a relocation, all three transitional curves take a big dip before rising back up to normal levels (i.e. homeostasis). Much like a plant that is unearthed and “changed” to a different environment/location, a person can “wither” until s/he has a chance to recover. As with plants, people require a nourishing environment to flourish. Any hostile, cold, uncaring environment is unfertile soil to expect any flourishing to take place.
Some employees are primed to transition more readily towards the New Beginning, while others are not ready. They may all be in different places, going at different paces. Organizational Consultant William Bridges describes transition in terms of three stages:
1) Ending
2) Neutral Zone
3) New Beginning
First Group(s) to Target
Using Sociologist Everett Rogers’ Bell Curve for his Diffusion of Innovations, the Early Majority is the first employee group to target for transition support. They are the group that is willing to embrace a new idea, as long as they understand how it fits in with their lives.
The Late Majority is the next employee group to target for transition support. They are the ones who adopt in reaction to peer pressure, emerging norms, and/or economic necessity. Most of the uncertainty around an idea must be resolved before they adopt.
The objective is to have the Early Majority cross the chasm that separates it from those already in the New Beginning, and to shift the Late Majority out of the depths of the Neutral Zone to be more pragmatic. This pull will either convince the Laggards, who are the skeptics, to move forward; or, they will recognize it’s time to jump ship.
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Succinct Strategy
Moving an organizational transition forward must be accomplished through several group discussions. If the change is a Merger & Acquisition (which carries roughly a 70% failure rate), then Cultural Integration experts should be brought in to assist the in-house talent who comprise the Transition Monitoring Team (TMT). Here are some steps that the TMT should map out…
- Develop Business Practices Statements by practicing Cultural Due Diligence (i.e. norms)
- Develop Outcome Narratives. (Appreciative Inquiry)
- Perform the Gap Assessment (“Right vs Right”)
- Develop Prioritized Action Plans
- Deploy Communications & TMT
- Evaluate Progress and Identify Additional Actions
Most great creations are not built in a day. They are created with passion, patience, art, and skill.
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Photo credit: Flickr/Faramarz Hashemi