Introduction

How long does it take employees to progress through these stages? Naturally, it depends. If an organisation has a history of cyclical changes and relatively high turnover, the process could be a matter of a month or two. In an organisation that has had decades of stability and where tenure is long and turnover low, full progress through these stages may take years. Whether the change is a one-time event or repeated, periodic upheavals will also significantly affect recovery.

It is also important to keep in mind that the stages of transition tend to overlap. Employees may show signs of more than one stage. Where each person is in the process is more a matter of emphasis, rather than all or nothing.

Perhaps, the single most important factor is how skilfully management leads employees through the process – if it even acknowledges that there is a process! Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the process will ever be completed if it is ignored. People can be stuck in Endings or the Neutral Zone for years.

Sometimes, management can seem very impatient with the employees to “get on with it” and not seem to have patience for their transition process. This may be because the executives started their transition process, whether they were aware of it or not, back at the time they first saw the need for change. By the time they planned and announced the change, they may have progressed to Beginnings and be raring to go, while everyone else in the organisation is just entering Endings! Pointing this out to your boss may buy you some time.

The key to remember is that there is a natural, inner process of adapting to change, that it takes time and that each person may have a different pace. It requires patience and understanding. And, while it can be helped along, it cannot be hurriedly pushed out of the way. It is a little like the creation of a child. No matter how many people are involved or how impatient we may be, it still takes nine months.

Nonetheless, many years of experience with significant change have shown us that there are some very reliable and solid guidelines that, if adopted appropriately, will greatly enhance the recovery process and avoid prolonging it.

It is critical to remember that the speed and effectiveness of an employees’ recovery programme depends heavily on how the change itself was handled. If employees see that those effected by the change were treated humanely and fairly, this will tend to lessen feelings of guilt and some of the worry about what might happen to them. It will also help to satisfy their sense of justice. So, while the emphasis here is on what to do after the change, keep in mind that a plan to help employees ideally begins with the plan for how to handle the change itself.

Once the change has been implemented, certain critical actions, listed here, must be taken to facilitate employees’ transition to recovery.

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