Moving Your Team Through the Change Curve

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 repetitive, 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 skillfully 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 get stuck in Endings or the Neutral zone for years.

Sometimes, management can seem very impatient for 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 plan and announce the change, they may have progressed to Beginnings and be rearing to go, while everyone else in the organization 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. It takes time, and 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 comparative to 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 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 depend heavily on how the change itself was handled. If employees see that those affected by the change were treated humanely and fairly, it would tend to lessen feelings of guilt and some of the worries 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.

Click here to watch a video with practical guidelines on how to move your team through the three phases of change.