New Realities About Real Change

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New Realities About Real Change!
by Richard S Deems, PhD

What you believe about change and how people react to change has a major impact on the success of your change initiatives. What your employees believe about change and how they should react to change will either make or break you. Unfortunately, for both you and your employees, a great deal of what's commonly believed and talked about change and how to deal with it is not accurate.

New evidence suggests at least three new realities about
real change.

Change Is Natural!

It's becoming more and more clear that the natural instinct is to make change work. Not to resist it. Not to fight it. But to make it work. This may be contrary to what a number of authors have written in the past, but it's what the life experiences of people clearly validates.

When you stop and look around you it becomes obvious that the natural striving is to make change work! That doesn't mean that everybody likes every change that comes along. As I laid in the ER waiting for my first angioplasty I wasn't jumping up and down with excitement. I knew there would be changes to make. But my natural, most basic instinct was to survive and make the changes necessary for good health!

Not liking something is not the same as resisting something. Just because some people may not like some of the organizational changes of the past and present is not the same as naturally resisting those changes! After all, change is what we experience constantly and consistently since birth and conception. Changing moods. Changing weather. Changing fads. Change. It is the most natural part of human existence!

Help your employees understand that change is a natural phenomena and that people don't naturally resist change and you're on the way to continuous organizational change for enhanced organizational effectiveness! There will be lively discussions and differences of opinion as new processes and new ways of doing things are explored and finally implemented. Employees will come up with new plans for even further changes for increased efficiencies, enhanced customer satisfaction, and a work culture that attracts and
keeps the best.

When people are free to explore change, and not get bogged down by thinking they should be resisting change, great things can happen!

People React to Change In Different Ways

Ever stop to watch a work team react to announced change? Some will say, "Yes!" and be ready to implement the change at that very moment. They will be out there encouraging the team to get behind the new change. Others will start asking "Why is this change necessary?" and "Why this change, instead of some other change?" They seem to want lots of information about how the change came about, and the justification for making the change. Give them the information they want and they support the new procedure.

Some want to know how the change fits within the existing system. They look for a diagram or chart. Questions are raised about routines, and the impact change will have on individuals and teams. Quietly, a few others want to "see" the change, in a 3-D model if you can. Their concern is whether or not the tools, space, and equipment will still be available so quality is the end product.

How do you deal with all these differences? You plan your change so as to accommodate these natural strengths. You plan so you avoid the biggest mistake managers make, which is to think and act like everybody reacts to change like the managers do. When you accommodate these natural differences, and provide the kinds of information different people want, you increase their buy-in and support of change.

"Understanding our natural strengths helped the administrative council and department heads put the changes into practice," states retired hospital CEO and now organizational effectiveness advisor Larry Pugh. "Without having this information about natural strengths we would have made many mistakes as we pushed to increase efficiencies," Pugh adds. When you just sit back, take a deep breath, and accommodate the natural ways people respond to organizational you'll get more done. And have more fun doing it!

Poor Planning Produces Stress and Burnout

The common myth is that stress and burnout is caused by organizational change. Not true. More and more studies are showing that organizational change in and of itself is not the major cause of stress and burnout. Having the wrong person in the wrong job causes stress and burnout. Making nearly-impossible demands on employees causes stress and burnout. Doing dumb things within the organization causes stress and burnout.

It's not very smart to make people work 50-60 hours per week for week after week with no time off. It's not very smart to reorganize the facility one way one month and then reorganize it another way the next month. It's not very smart to demand people do more with less and then never tell them how they're appreciated for their efforts.

Stress and burnout is most often caused by poor planning, poor execution, and pointless demands by managers who could be the subjects of Dilbert cartoons. Will I be stressed if I have to work 13 hours one day to deal with a lot of unexpected things that have to be dealt with? Probably not. I may be tired, but it will be a feeling of deep satisfaction if I solved the crisis, and am told by my boss that my efforts are appreciated. However, I'll get stressed and burned out if that's the way things happen day after day and nobody ever lets me know that my extra effort is noticed – and appreciated.

If your managers are complaining about stress and burnout then closely examine what you've been doing. In more instances than not, you have been making inordinate demands on their time and energy. It results in stress and burnout.

New realities about real change are emerging, and it's time to discard outworn and inaccurate paradigms. Since basic beliefs drive action, when you change your beliefs you will change your actions. Your actions will show that you understand that change is the most natural phenomenon humans experience.

Richard S Deems, PhD, is president of Deems Associates Inc/WorkLife Design, based in Des Moines, and author of Making Change Work For You! You can contact Deems at rsdeems@worklifedesign.com.

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