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The Change Curve that People Move Through
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During change, employees move through three main phases. Every person will change at his/her own pace. Some will move quicker, and others will struggle through some of the phases. Effective leadership will guide people to move through these different phases.
Think of this process of going down into a valley and then climbing back to the top of the mountain again. People will move from the old to the new through a similar process.
The change curve is characterised by three stages:
- The Ending: Endings signify the loss of something. Even when the change is positive, it is not uncommon for employees to experience feelings of loss.
- The Neutral Zone: During this stage, energy is generated as employees focus their attention on the future and the external environment. It can be a very chaotic phase, as people ask many questions and are trying to figure out what the change entails.
- The Beginning: The group is ready for commitment and focus on priorities. New norms and values are established.
These stages and the emotions people experience in the different phases are illustrated in the diagram below:
Endings
Emotions are at their highest level when a significant change is first implemented in an organisation. High levels of emotions can devastate the organisation’s productivity. Ending signifies the loss of something. Even when the change is positive, it is not uncommon for employees to experience a sense of loss. When a major shift/restructuring or change occurs in an organisation, employees tend to experience several types of loss:
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Security |
Feeling that you do not know for certain what will happen with you/your position, etc. Feel insecure and uncertain as to what the future holds. |
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Competence |
With a new job, structure, process, etc. you may feel unsure as to how to complete the tasks. It is hard not to know how to do something, especially if you are in a senior position. |
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Relationships |
The familiar contact with people, like old customers, co-workers, or managers, may be disrupted. People often lose their sense of belonging to a team, group, or section. |
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Sense of Direction |
Employees lose their understanding of where they are going and why they are going there. The vision of where they are going, as well as the objectives they must meet to get there, become vague and uncertain. |
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Territory |
Employees often experience feelings of uncertainty about the work environment that used to belong to them. Territory includes psychological space as well as physical space. |
Most employees react to endings with denial and resistance. The initial reaction to change is always one of denial or shock. This, mostly, leads to numbness as if it requires time to sink in. Nothing much happens. Work tends to continue as usual. It appears as if productivity will remain the same. People hold onto the past as if no new future was announced. This is an open/public phase.
In resistance people realise that the change will not go away and start to deal with it – mentally and in actions. People might experience severe negative emotions. You will find people gossiping, discussing, and grumbling in groups. People desperately hang on to the past. This is an intensely personal process that every individual must cope with and work through on their own.
Emotions associated with THE ENDING include:
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Denial |
“This can’t be happening!” “This is just a temporary measure. After a few years, the focus on affirmative action will lessen, and then we can go back to our old ways.” “We don’t have any problems with diversity here.” “Business is business. After the initial shock/resistance, we adjusted very quickly.” |
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Grief/Loss |
“I wish we could just go back to how it used to be around here.” “I miss my old way of doing things/being a heterogenic work group.” “It feels as if I have lost my true identity.” |
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Anger |
“Those rotten $@%&*X! How could they change what used to work for us? This organisation was successful way back; look how this diversity ‘thing’ has affected us all!” “My boss is a real *&^%$#! He will never understand me. Why do I have to make all these changes while he carries on in his old ways?” |
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Guilt |
“I wish I didn’t say these insulting words!” “Maybe my colleague deserved that promotion more than I did.” |
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Fear |
“I will need to fit in here, or else…” “I’d better not make any waves or any risky decisions. Best to play it safe.” |
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Passivity |
“Why make any extra efforts if it is not recognised anyway?” |
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Anxiety |
“I’m not sure I really have what it takes to adjust to the new way of doing things.” “How much do I have to change?” |
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Confusion |
“I’m no longer sure how I fit in, what’s going on around here, or what I’m supposed to do.” |
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Distrust |
“I thought, as long as the organisation was doing OK, and you were doing a good job, your efforts will be recognised. Just goes to show you can’t believe anything management tells you.” |
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Burnout |
“I put in unbelievably-long days, six or seven days a week, can’t sleep, don’t have time for exercise, family, or anything else, have trouble concentrating, feel overwhelmed – all just to prove I am just as good as my colleagues.” |
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Depression |
“I will never fit in. The company culture is just too far removed from my own.” |
Not everyone will experience all these reactions. Some people, for example, may be quite relieved to see the organisation take steps to be more effective. Nonetheless, most people will experience some combination of many of them, with differing degrees of severity, and they may be expressed in many ways. Altogether they add up to lowered morale.
Neutral Stage
During this stage, energy is generated as employees focus their attention on the future and the external environment. They are still very sceptical, but at least they start asking questions and consider options. This is the turning point. You might find people swinging between exploring and resisting. This is also an individual/personal process that each person must deal with and work through.
This is also a chaotic phase, as people are trying to figure out what the changes entail, what their new responsibilities are, and how to relate to one-another.
People start to explore the future. They start to ask many questions. People that require lots of structure and certainty find this to be a very difficult time.
New Beginnings
After searching, testing, experimenting and exploring a new phase beginning to emerge. When this happens, the individual or group is ready for commitment. During this stage employees starts to focus on priorities. They create a new mission and develop action plans. Teams are formed, and new norms and values are established. They become publicly committed and focus and function again as a team. This phase will continue until a new cycle of transformation begins with another major change.