The people part of change

Some people are just more adaptable to change.  Whether it’s relocating to a different country, changing careers, or starting a new focus in my business, all of which are changes I’m currently going through, I say, BRING IT ON!  Discovering new places, meeting fresh faces and working with new teams, fills me with excitement—the good kind, that allows me to hop out of bed in the morning, eager to begin.  Even though I’m unsure of the day’s outcome, I am grateful that it won’t be boring.

My sister said to me the other day when referring to a flight I was taking from L.A. to Osaka and the change in time zone I was going to experience, not to mention shuffling around of my schedule to adapt, “I don’t know how you do it.”  I replied that it was all about adopting a positive over negative Mindset in the face of these challenges.  Maybe Henry Ford said it best: “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”  I truly believe that it’s possible to choose the attitude you want to have when experiencing change.

For teams that are going through change, and so many teams are at the moment, one of the hardest things to tackle is that no one reacts to change in the same way.  Change is a process and just like a wave—which can either be exhilarating, like getting barreled in Waikiki, or stressful, like surviving a tsunami.   You can build new processes into your business and hope everyone follows the direction with clear communication, but the bottom line is that if you’re not supporting your PEOPLE and honoring how everyone is experiencing the change, it’s going to be a rickety transition.

So, if your success is both driven and limited by employees’ ability to adopt and adapt to change, developing a human-centric approach to change should be foremost in the minds of organizations’ leaders right now.

The first step is always getting a clear snapshot of how each employee is reacting to what’s going on.

• How do they view the change affecting their role?
• How does this affect their overall perception of the brand?
• How do they feel management or even just YOU are handling the internal communication portion of the change?

We recommend doing an assessment which can be as easy as creating a confidential Google Survey. You can also hire a 3rd party like ours who can create it for you and manage the 1-1 interviews anonymously. You want to provide a safe space for employees to unpack what’s going on with them internally and let people know that you're listening to their concerns and it's ok to share them.  Recently, through an anonymous survey and interviews we conducted with staff members, a client of ours was able to gather important information about the leadership team and was able to implement changes in the organization that were needed to make the global team function in a more collaborative way.   Surveys provide information, data and awareness which will allow you as a leader to design a plan that's supportive and effective.

Being able to recognize where each person is in terms of the different stages of change will allow you to be more empathetic, provide information and support, and move them through it in a smoother way.  In addition, if your people are trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of the different stages they can better support others around them, no matter what level of the organization they are.