You want to change what?!
Management and union leaders often approach organizational change as if people will leap from ignorance to action based on the word of the leader:
• "I only need to clearly tell them where we need to go, they'll understand and go there."
• "Once I tell them it's for the good of the membership, they'll get on board."
• "If we get out there and announce together what we're up to, they'll buy into it."
They seem surprised when it doesn't work that way. Though the outcome of an intended change can't be predicted, the responses of those it affects can.
Predictable Responses to Change. We can think of people responding to change as walking from the front to the back of a house. We move from ignorance (knowing nothing about it) to action (embracing the change). It's a rare soul who can walk around the house or leap directly over it. Most of us, faced by impending change, move through its four rooms: denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment.
Denial: This is the room where we refuse to apply any new information to our own situation. We simply don't acknowledge the change we face. We may focus on "business as usual" or on the past. We avoid anything to do with the change, withdrawing completely. We can easily rationalize our need to stay in this room. We think it's the best place to be, for all the right reasons—ours, of course. So, we stay put, paralyzed by worry or uncertainty, rather than moving forward.
Resistance: In this room, we recognize that change may be unavoidable, but we build obstacles to prevent it. Often, people come out of this room's woodwork to defend the status quo. Feeling anxious, depressed, angry, or even personally threatened, we react. Leaders manipulate, push, or over-control; their presumed "followers" withdraw or attack. Each winds up in opposite corners of the room, stuck.
Exploration: The process of moving forward begins in this room. With increasing interest, we start trying new ideas and behaviors—a few at a time. There is increased risk-taking as we examine new ways to work and act. As we begin to adapt, there's more energy and increasing excitement. (If we're not careful, this can spill over into the confusion that comes from lack of focus.) We start to test our ability to change with creative problem-solving and a bit more flexibility.
Acceptance: We've arrived in the room where we are finally ready to identify with a new direction and focus on getting there. An emerging sense of control and accomplishment makes us more confident and comfortable. Our increasing success at "the new way of doing things" breeds more cooperative behavior and support for further experimentation. Success begets success. We've found our way to the other side of the house and adapted to new ways of acting.
Leading any sort of change doesn't mean getting people to leap from the front to the back of the house, from ignorance to action. It entails adapting the pace with which people move through the house and responding in ways that help them move from one room to the next.
So, what's a leader to do? Change raises anxiety. We resist what's different not because we are obstinate, but because we're afraid of failing at something new. So, we often won't even try.
Successful union and management leaders of change acknowledge this, finding ways to deal with resistance constructively. They don't assume that those who are critical, defensive, or otherwise resistant are disloyal or antagonistic. Resisting individuals are normal human beings going through a normal response to change. Resistance isn't a character flaw to be "overcome." It's a rich source of feedback to hear and respond to.
People need support during any process of change, particularly in the beginning. Once provided with that support, they usually show a greater willingness to accept and adapt to change.
We know that change is inevitable and difficult. We also know people will deny the need and resist the attempt. When we accept these facts, we can learn to lead, not force, change. This starts with recognizing the following:
• People need time and support as they progress through each of the four rooms.
• Different people will move at different paces.
• Some people will never move from resistance, through exploration and acceptance, to action. (But that doesn't make them "the enemy.")
• Change takes time for people to accept, adapt to, and integrate into their lives.
Failing to recognize this, leaders often resort to pronouncing change into place. And they find, to their disappointment, that they're the only ones hearing the pronouncements. n
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