The Change Management Tactic Most Of Us Miss
Today we transition from learning how to influence change to more effectively communicating change.
If you're new (welcome!) or you'd like to catch up, the last 3 weeks we've been looking at how to increase your organizational influence:
Now, let's dive in…
So, here we are, you've leveraged your new tools for influence, and you've successfully gotten the go-ahead from your leader to drive forward a change.
Let's talk about THE most important tactic within communicating change.
And no, it's not just sharing “the why.”
Your change messaging must address this: their self perception.
Change impacts how we see ourselves.
Here are 2 relatable life examples to illustrate what I mean:
With business, the change is often logical. There's a business case that makes sense.
That's not what people struggle with.
They are struggling because their self perception has changed.
They saw themselves as efficient, the new process feels cumbersome.
They saw themselves as tenured, learning a new system makes them feel like a rookie.
They saw themselves as subject matter experts, the re-org calls into question their expertise.
William Bridges calls this the Transition. It's the psychological process we go through on our journey to a new end state (the change).
What can a leader do to help people transition through to the change?
Recognize
Address
Pave another path
How To Recognize
First, when you think about what is changing, what might people be losing?
Comfort
Familiarity
Flexibility
Autonomy
Expertise
You need to step into their shoes.
→ Have they been comfortable with a process and they could zoom through it? And now the new process introduces a new screen they haven't been familiar with?
→ Have they seen themselves as experts of a particular product? And now that product is being sunset and they're taking on new responsibilities?
Aim to identify what you assume to be what they'll perceive they're losing.
Address The Emotion
Whatever you've identified as the loss your people could perceive, pull that into your change announcement.
Your goal is to minimize the amount of time people are thinking and worrying, “what does this mean for me?”
Proactively tell them what it means for them, while also naming the potential fears people are likely feeling.
The announcement for a difficult decision might flow like this:
Your announcement is the first place to acknowledge emotions.
Here are another few examples of ways to proactively address their perceived losses:
I'm guessing this shift in responsibilities is infusing some doubt into your abilities, how are you hanging in?
It's fair that this pivot in business strategy might be causing you to question the career path you've been on, I'd love to hear what's on your mind.
I can imagine the departure of your team members could have rattled your sense of security, how is everything settling with you?
Pave Another Path
The messy, in between time with change, can be a beautiful place for innovation and recreation.
It's here that you can leverage their self perception to help them create their future self.
In the midst of change, and after acknowledging emotions, begin to dive into:
Who do they want to be on the other side?
What impact do they wish to have?
What do they want to be known for?
Helping to ground them in an updated self perception enables emotions to further settle, and change to proceed forward.
–
What's a change you're leading through?
What self-perceptions have been rattled as a result?
Can you leverage today's tactics to better settle your people?
Comment below or fire off a note to katie@enduranceboss.com with any additional questions or thoughts!
