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4 Things You Can Do To Make Going Through Big Change Less Painful

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When I was first an employee in the 1970's, it seemed to me that most companies were fairly stable: people worked at one place for a long time; organizations didn't "restructure" unless they were involved in a merger or acquisition; companies' products or services changed slowly, if at all. ("New and improved" usually meant something pretty insignificant.)

Now, all bets are off.  People change jobs regularly, and in most organizations it's highly unusual for someone - especially in the leadership and management ranks - to stay at that company for his or her entire career. Companies "re-org" yearly, it seems...and not just minor shifts, but wholesale changes in structure and personnel. And companies' products and services - as well as the business models whereby those things are created, marketed and sold - shift at a dizzying pace as the business world becomes ever more customer-centric and international. In other words, change - daily, disruptive change - is here to stay.

Unfortunately, most of us human beings aren't very fond of change, especially change that's imposed upon us from outside. And as a result, change can bring lowered morale and productivity, higher turnover, poor communication, lack of clarity, interpersonal tension...a host of problems large and small. The good news is, there are some relatively simple things leaders can do to make change much easier for those around them:

Increase understanding: My mom used to have a cartoon posted on the bulletin board in our kitchen.  It was a picture of a mushroom with a frustrated face, and the caption read: "They must think I'm a mushroom. They keep me in the dark and feed me sh*t." I suspect that 's how a lot of employees feel when big changes happen in their organizations.  As a leader, share whatever you can, as soon as you can.  I understand that sometimes legal issues, or issues of confidentiality, prevent a full sharing - but leaders often use those things as an excuse.  Really think deeply about how to let people know, as early on as possible, what's going to happen, why, when, and how it will affect them.  Then be ready for questions, and be as honest and simple as possible in responding to those questions.  And it's OK if you can't answer everything - most people will respect that as long as you're honest and simple about not being able to answer. For instance, "I'm sorry, but I can't talk about that aspect of the change yet - I'll let you know what's happening as soon as I can." Sharing as much as possible of the what, why, when and how will make people feel much less like mushrooms, and ease the overall angst dramatically.

Clarify & reinforce priorities. CEOs and boards make big changes in their companies to better position the enterprise to achieve its priorities (one hopes).  So, as a leader, make sure you understand what those priorities are, and how the changes are designed to support them.  Then turn around and share that understanding with your folks.  For instance, if you say to your employees something like, "One of our key priorities over the next 3 years as a company is to move into the international markets.  This restructuring of the sales force is intended to support this shift" - that will make sense to most of them.  And when they again lose sight of that connection between the change and the hoped-for future (as they will), you can remind them. When a change feels arbitrary or unnecessary to people, they'll resist.  Helping them connect the dots in this way in likely to lower their resistance pretty significantly.

Give control. Perhaps the worst thing about organizational change for most people is that it feels like it's happening to them, rather than with them or for them. To whatever extent you can involve people in the decisions that affect their specific jobs, do so. A colleague recently shared a great example with me: a smaller company was being acquired by a larger company where the payroll system included direct deposit of paychecks.  The head of HR for the smaller company (soon to be a division) was upset because for years she had gone around and handed out everyone's paychecks to them personally.  It was a great twice-a-month moment where she connected with every single employee.  The HR head from the larger company asked her to think about another way she could create that kind of connection in the post-merger world. The smaller company HR head came up with a plan to create affinity groups around topics employees were passionate about, and asked if she could 'own' that effort.  The senior HR person agreed and provided resources. Giving her that one area of control shifted her from resistant and negative to supportive of the change.

Give support.  When things change, people go through mental and emotional adjustments. (There's a great little book on this topic by William Bridges called Managing Transitions; it outlines the core internal stages people go through in times of change.) The very worst thing you can do as a leader is to try to talk people out of what they're feeling. It's easy to forget, as a manager, that by the time we communicate a change to our people, we've generally had anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to get our head around it.  And then we expect our employees, on first hearing, to be as accepting of the change as we are after months of thought and questioning. Give them a little time to be worried, to hesitate, to ask questions, to want to know the impact on them, even to be sad or anxious.  Listen.  Summarize their concerns, and ask what you can do to address them.  Offer the three things I've suggested above.  Your support will help them move through their reactions as quickly and easily as possible.

And the nice thing is, every time you support a change in this skillful way, it makes the next one a little easier. And the next one.  Because, as a friend of mine says, change is the new black.  So if it's going to be our daily companion, we'd better get good at it...

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Check out Erika Andersen’s latest book, Leading So People Will Followand discover how to be a followable leader. Booklist called it “a book to read more than once and to consult many times.”

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