It is human nature for people to unconsciously resist change. People naturally rely on their routines, tools, and systems for communication, organization, and management to create a sense of consistency and control in their lives – especially when these systems have been developed over months or years.
At the same time, companies exist in a world of constant change. New technologies, evolving markets, shifting customer needs, government regulations, and even changes in ownership are common.
This clash between the desire for stability and the inevitability of change places leaders in a challenging position. They must carefully guide their teams through transitions at a pace employees can manage, while maintaining enough momentum to seize opportunities and avoid falling behind in a fast-moving market.
Humans are creatures of habit because habitual action relies on pre-built pathways in the brain and is easier on the mind and body than learning new methods and creating new pathways.
Oftentimes, habits in the workplace can be good and necessary, but market pressures will inevitably push companies to adopt new ways to do things, leading to new workplace procedures and tools. As a result, good habits that were once core to individual success will need to be reworked or created again, which can cause reductions in productivity instead of increases.
So when change needs to happen but we or our teams are avoiding it, how can we best navigate what’s coming?
How Psychology can Help Us to Adapt Our Management Styles
There are dozens of frameworks that various psychology researchers and behavioral scientists have developed over the years to help better understand the human mind and its functions, but one of the models we found most helpful for our work in the business world is called Self Psychology.
First developed by Heinz Kohut, Self Psychology has direct applications to understanding how an employee is experiencing the impacts of change. In the simplest terms, this field of study highlights that we all use various people, relationships, memories, ideologies, faith, and tangible items to maintain our sense of self or identity. These are known as selfobjects.
The model states that the self starts to fragment when it is at risk, and there is usually some kind of defense mechanism that gets engaged.
Defense mechanisms in the workplace can come in many forms, such as becoming agitated, threatening to quit, job shopping, talking poorly about fellow employees or the company online, poor work performance, or even health issues that require time off.
Often, when an employee receives news of an impending change at work, whatever part of their day-to-day jobs they use to maintain their sense of self are suddenly at risk. When those day-to-day routines which serve as workplace selfobjects are at risk, internal warning bells go off, the employee may go into a heightened state of concern.
In practice, this means that almost all employees will see any change presented to them as risky, not because It is actually risky for the business, but rather because there are risks to their own personal sense of self.
Knowing all this makes it much easier to understand where resistance to change comes from, but also shows how leaders can get ahead of the perceived risks and provide alternative access to new systems, procedures, tools, and much more that employees can use to more quickly form new habits and be comfortable in their sense of self within the context of change.
In more practical day-to-day business terms, ask your individual team members what they like about the current working environment, what are they worried about happening if it changes, and assure them that you hear them, repeating back to them what you believe you heard so they can confirm. Then highlight resources they can use to regain the things they are worried about losing.
Doing this before the change is implemented is critical, otherwise it can escalate into a barrage of emotional reactions.
Emotions
It won’t be possible to avoid dealing with emotions all together. No one is perfect, and everyone has their own reasons for being attached to things that might need to change. Even if you hired a full-time psychologist to join the team, you would inevitably be forced to deal with the impact of emotions.
One of the difficulties with change is that it can cause emotions to run hot in ways that are often otherwise avoidable in the workplace. While typically people try to think rationally and stay calm at work, having something that has been working for years suddenly stop working can feel like a hugely impactful event.
Times of change are often reported by HR teams as containing the highest volumes of concerns about the health of the company and potential job loss. People see structural change as a potential for cuts or as something which will change the workplace dynamics and culture which employees have come to find solace in.
This understandably causes people great discomfort, fear, and upset. Dealing with the emotions that stem from the threat of change can be incredibly difficult, and may require different skills than individual department managers have.
As highlighted earlier, the best method of dealing with emotions running high is to try and prevent triggering them in the first place, as proactively setting expectations will be far easier than trying to calm someone down in the aftermath. However, it still happens, and you should have someone in your circle to support navigation through conflict and mediate elevated emotions. The cost of finding good employees is huge; invest appropriately.
Outsource with an HR firm who knows how to help, have a company on standby who specializes in change management, or hire HR internally. Whatever you do, don’t pretend that emotions will never enter the workplace. When it happens, it usually escalates quickly, but with a little foresight, it is almost always preventable.
Software Changes
One of the most common day-to-day activities employees do in the workplace comes in the form of habits around software and performing digital tasks in specific ways. The methods for completing tasks and speed at which they can be done are learned over time and involve many, many hours of practice.
Because of this, when new software is proposed, people can often feel overwhelmed. It means having to learn everything from scratch again, which is an intimidating prospect. If employees are already feeling overwhelmed and unable to keep up, asking them to adopt new software can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
In cases where you know change is coming, being transparent about that change and letting people come to terms with the change is vital. Involve your employees in early views of the software and get their feedback.
An employee showing up to work one day and discovering that suddenly everything is different will create an unproductive and emotionally elevated environment for a while, whereas staff who contributed to the process and understand the changes coming, and most importantly, the plan for making the transition in a healthy way, will have a much easier time transitioning.
Oftentimes, this means setting a good example and showing your team that you or your managers are willing to learn and adopt the new methods yourself, rather than complaining about the coming change alongside them. Of course, this does not mean shutting down complaints, but it does mean being open about why the change has to happen and sympathizing with the fact that changes in routine are hard, but that you will all be learning together.
Organizational Changes
Organizational changes often impact multiple layers within a business, sometimes making changes in reporting structures, introducing new leadership or mandates, and including new people from other departments that are less familiar to existing teams. All of this change can create a great deal of anxiety.
In this case we should take a moment and remind you that these kinds of changes can impact multiple selfobjects all at once. It is so big, and has the potential to be so overwhelming that making these kinds of changes cannot be done in isolation for the sake of the business.
Your people are who you count on every day and if you ignore their well-being and productivity as part of your restructuring plans you could really cause yourself serious damage.
Interestingly, unlike smaller changes that affect software or other day-to-day tools used by employees, organization-structure changes are often better done by a small select group of leaders first and not widely communicated too early.
After the initial framework is established, then bring in your middle managers to get feedback and buy-in. They will help catch broader concerns and offer insight on ways to address them. Next, introduce some hand-picked employees to give their feedback and tackle more granular issues. Only then should you announce the new changes to the general organization as a whole along with the names of the people who helped to create it.
By doing things in this order you avoid making too many assumptions, get a chance to hear feedback and gather support and buy-in from influencers and leaders in your company. You’ll also have an opportunity to catch problems and make tweaks before “going live”.
How Everyone Can Help Promote Change
Dealing with the aftermath of changes in the workplace should not have to be the job of the HR department, but rather done holistically before the changes are even implemented in order to make healthy transitions. It is the job of everyone to work together to both make change as transparent of a process as possible and to support each other in coming to terms with the fact that sometimes change is inevitable.
Change can be scary, but support from other people can make it seem significantly less so. By involving everyone in discussions about the implementation of change, working together to create a roadmap for the change, and supporting each other during the process, everybody can have a role in facing change head on.
It may feel natural to avoid change and to try to hold on to old ways for as long as possible, but the sooner people come to terms with what’s coming, the sooner they can begin building new habits and feeling comfortable in the post-change environment.
Change is something SalesEvolve helps companies with every day. If you want to explore opportunities for changes that will have a positive impact on the bottom line of your company, please reach out.