Making Change Work for You

Making Change Work for You

Caryn Skinner

Every one of us needs to do our best work, lead and help drive cultural change. We sometimes underestimate what we each can do to make things happen and overestimate what others need to do to move us forward.-Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft This is a key quote for successfully navigating change. It takes all of us. We cannot wait for others to make the changes ok for us. We need to do everything we can do to help ourselves navigate changes successfully, taking into account our preferences and needs; and when that happens the entire company will be able to change successfully as well.___________________________________________________________________

Faith is taking the first step, even when you dont see the whole staircase Martin Luther King Jr.

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new Alan Cohen

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future John F. Kennedy

2OutlineNature of changeIngredients of changePersonal response to changeMaking it work for you

Shock:Sudden and unexpected change

Evolutionary:Gradual change which emerges over time

Strategic:Intentional change we drive to achieve a desired outcomeWe are going to start by identifying some changes you are either currently experiencing or have experiencing the past year. Changes come in many forms, but often fall into three main types. Shock, Evolutionary, and Strategic. Shock A teammate is let go without your notice so is there one day and gone the next. Evolutionary System upgrades or brand refresh. Strategic A merger, acquisition, (or perhaps a split in a division?)The important thing to know here is that no matter what type of change it is, it can still be difficult to adapt to effectively.

Shock = lost job, colleague leaves next day, someone quitsEvolutionary = hair loss, brand refresh, upgrade overtime, kids growing, weight loss Strategic = conscious decision made to move forward, merger/acquisition

4OutlineNature of changeIngredients of changePersonal response to changeMaking it work for youThe Change Equation(V+D+S)>R

Define the Present Picture the future

Manage it!

The Change ProcessThe Leadership JourneyPeopleOperationsStrategy & objectives1st LineMiddleDirectorCEOOutlineNature of changeIngredients of changePersonal response to changeMaking it work for you

Psychology of ChangeChange is disruptiveResistance often arises (whether change is perceived as positive or negative)Our preferences, values, and history have a direct impact on how we experience changeEach person moves through change in stagesEvery person moves through these stages at a different pace and with different emotions

Resistance: Often arises as individuals are comfortable with the knowneven if the new will be better in the long run. Resistance comes from wanting to maintain the status quo change requires new learning, new ways of doing things, new effortcan yield resistance if the benefits of the new are not communicated.Inertia or denial of the need for change can be a form of resistance.10

Defining Change & Transition It isnt the changes that do you in, its the transitions. Change is not the same as transition - William Bridges, Managing TransitionsWe have been talking about Change up to this point, but when we talk about our process and how we navigate change, what we are really talking about is Transition. Change is the thing that happens, and transition is the process that we go through to come to terms with the new situation.

Even when we schedule changewe still go through a transition process New HouseNew BabyNew Job

Change you can schedule, have datapoint it is event Transition is process and where you are going to have most challenges

12

Neutral Zone(out at sea)

New Beginnings(coming ashore)Endings(leaving shore)

Sticking with our nautical theme, you can think about the Endings phase as Leaving Shore, the Neutral Zone as being Out at Sea, and New Beginnings as Coming Ashore in the new port. One useful part of this analogy is that you must Leave Shore before you can arrive at a new port.

Other key points to this model:Transitions happen whether change is viewed negatively or positivelyYou may feel uncomfortable through the entire change process

Lets explore some of the emotions that you imagine people might be experiencing for each stage in this process, and remember that there are likely to be a wide variety of emotions for each stage.

Ask for inputs (or assign table groups to each stage in a larger group) to identify what emotions may be experienced in each stage. Once lists are up on flips, as what people notice (typically it is the similarity of the listsany emotion may show up in any stage, and you may experience seemingly contradictory emotions in the same stage excitement and anxiety).13Fear?

Endings

Neutral ZoneNew Beginnings

LG p. 7You are probably familiar with the Change Curve. You can see it here with words like Shock, Rejection, Resistance, exploration, Approval, and Identification written on it. This curve is actually based on the grief process that people go through when someone dies. (Elisabeth Kubler Ross Death & Dying). It has been adapted to explain the process that people go through when experiencing a change, and is a popular way of explaining this journey. It is definitely helpful, but an important reminder is that while everybody goes through some version of that curve, the shape of the curve will look different for different people. Some people have a shorter curve, some have a shallower curve. Some may have circles within their curve as they cycle backwards before moving forwards. Real reason people struggle with change is loss of some kind. The sooner you can identify what the loss is, the sooner you can move forward.

In focusing on the transitions that people are going through, we have overlaid William Bridges Transition model onto the Change Curve. Bridges model is simple, pointing out three main parts of the journey; Endings, a Neutral Zone, and New Beginnings. These transition phases happen; they cannot be skipped or avoided; but awareness, support, & leadership can help ensure a safe passage. The simplicity of this model actually allows for the complexity which is individual differences to show up. So within Endings, some people may be at a low point and others may be at a high point. Both are normal.

Endings = hardest part is letting go how do I get away from the dock Neutral Zone = cannot see old way; cannot see new way we want people out of sea in shortest timeNew Beginnings = embracing new direction

Just as with the change curve, peoples pathway through the three stages will look different. This is where it is important to take into account individual differences and not expect people to adhere to a formula. For example, they can slide back to the ending point as they learn more about the change, even from New Beginnings.

Goal is to help people move through to New Beginnings and be experiencing a high level of Competence/Confidence.15The Kubler Ross change curve

TimeBuy-inLeadersManagersIndividual ContributorsLevel in the organization is another thing that may affect where a person is in the change process at any point in time. Leaders tend to hear about the change first, and by the time they communicate the change to their direct reports, they may already have gone through Endings and Neutral Zone, and may be in New Beginnings. Simply being aware of this phenomenon can help leaders to be empathetic to the responses they may get from pepole when they communicate a change, AND for those on a team to understand why a leader may not seem to get why they arent excited right away about a change.17Leading through transition

OutlineNature of changeIngredients of changePersonal response to changeMaking it work for youThe Change Equation(V+D+S)>R The Kubler Ross change curve

Resilience to StressResilience to stress is the ability to sustain your energy and motivation in times of stress; to recover quickly from change (Bounce back)

As you move through the transition process, you may find different stressors in each phase. Your ability to recognize what is causing the stress for you, when it gets too high, and what you can do to reduce your experience of the stressors as stressful will help you to remain resilient through the transition, even if you bounce back and forth between the stages, or if you find yourself involved in multiple or sequential changes. What this looks like will be different for different people, and we will explore that in just a moment.

Ask yourself How can I build tolerance to avoid snap of band. 22The Impact of Stress on Performance

EustressDistressLG p. 17Just a brief foray back into the world of Psychology. This curve was developed in 1908 and is still usedbecause it rings true. Stress has an interesting relationship with our behavior and performance. Not all stress is bad!

The term for good stress is Eustress (You-stress). As you can see on this curve, our performance is lowest when we have either too much OR too little pressure. When we are in the sweet spot of pressure that stretches and challenges us but does not overwhelm us, we perform strongly. That amount of pressure is called Eustress. Weve all experienced that; this is why stretch goals are so effective at motivating us to do our best. These are goals that are just out of reach, but still seem attainable so we work really hard to achieve them and feel great when we do. However, we also all know what happens when the pressure gets too great, and we descend into first strain, and then panic. Of course performance goes down under those circumstances. Just as with everything else we have been talking about today, every persons sweet spot is different, and it may change over the course of your life and in different circumstances. What I could handle as far as a workload without getting stressed before I had kids and now that I have three kids is different. Different things push me into that strain and panic zone. Of course awareness is the key. Knowing yourself, when you are experiencing eustress, and when you have tipped the scales and are experiencing Distress, is the first step to being able to address it and pull yourself back into the safe zone.

Tolerance This may also be a good time to discuss overall tolerance for stress, and how stress may build up as change is piled upon change. So you may not feel stressed at all when your manager changes, but then as your team is re-orged into another team, and then you hear the company changing strategy, you may notice your stress level rising. Each persons tolerance for stress will be different, and we need to also recognize the implications that stress upon stress may have.23Reacting Versus RespondingReacting (Instinctive no choice)

Responding(Thoughtful a proactive choice)Awareness creates choiceLG p. 10Our goal is to build awareness and give you CHOICE as you navigate change-So many of our reactions are handled by our subconscious brain. This is a positive feature that saves us from having to focus on and think about every single thing. The problem is when we need to make a change, but our subconscious continues to handle our decisions and reactions. In order to make a change, we have to first bring these reactions into our awareness and recognize the choice that is being made for us by our subconscious brain. Then we have a chance to change that choice. This is part of why change is so difficult.

What we are about is giving us power of choice. Reactions important and need to do this.

Building resilienceProblem solving approachSeeking help, confiding in othersSeeing self as a survivor not a victimHelping others through the changeSeeing bigger picture this too shall passFinding opportunities in the change for you

WATERBE THENOT THEROCKThe essence of adaptability: Be the water, not the rock.

Water takes the shape of whatever vessel it is put in, without losing its essence as water.

The rock, while it seems to be solid, is slowly worn down by the water over time, so in the end, it is the water that prevails anyway. Might as well go along for the ride.

The rock has the same scenery every day. The water sees something new every day. (There are my color energy preferences showing up; my Subshine Yellow WANTS to see new thingssome of you may have a preference that is much happier with the idea of the rock seeing the same thing every day and being predictable).

26Yay sayers and Nay sayersInfluenceConcernInfluenceConcernFrom Concern to InfluenceThe donors wont like this approach well lose them and never get them back and then how will we sustain funding for future programmes?Im not totally convinced but lets explore the idea more as it may mean improvementsThis clearly needs to be done but Im going to need guidance on prioritising itIm concerned about how the donors might respond so let me explore the idea more as it may mean more opportunitiesThis is a bad idea it wont work and our data base is fine as it is anyway

How am I supposed to make this happen in so little time I have a day job too!