Managing employee reactions to change

When change happens, people will react. However, managers can impact the speed and impact of change by helping people to manage their personal change journey, empowering them to be as productive as possible and to get behind the new ways of working. 

Our ability to deal with change is impacted by several factors; including... 

• our personality make-up  

• our life experiences of change so far 

• our involvement in the decision and design of the change. 

This means that everyone reacts differently. As a manager, you must identify the new team dynamics that arise to help you understand how you need to act in order to ensure change is successful.

The different reactions to change

Low tolerance

One of the first things you might notice during times of change is that people are generally not as kind to each other at work.  We can become overloaded by processing personal needs when organisational change occurs. Many of us find change destabilising at some level, and as such, we can spend energy and brainpower managing niggles through to worrying thoughts and anxieties about the changes we are experiencing.  

Higher levels of contrast

We can also revert to our favoured ways of working and are less able to accommodate others.  If you are extroverted, it is likely you will become more so, if you are introverted, then you are likely to become more so. People who like detail start to ask for more than usual, and at the same time, those who want the bigger picture can become frustrated with the need for details, seeing this as getting in the way of change, rather than driving further understanding.   

Division and allegiances

 People begin to relate differently. As the organisational landscape changes, so do allegiances, power, and politics. Networks break up and re-form. Some people will be up and running with the new plan straight away, whilst others are still denying that anything is changing, and this can cause tension in working relationships. 

This can mean that the people can get further and further away from their networks and can become more isolated and less effective. 

As a manager, we can think about this in terms of the change curve and the process people are going through. 

Change is a process that needs to be gone through

The change curve gives us a handy, practical map of the different processes we go through in our minds as a change impacts us as human beings. 

We can use it to make sense of the behaviours we see.  The speed at which we go through the change curve stages, and the depth at which it can impair our performance, is dependent on many factors.  However, good management and clear communication can go a long way to making this as smooth as possible.

The aim is to pass through the different phases - from denial to acceptance - smoothly and without too much impact on your ability to be present and perform your role.

What moves us through the stages is understanding, and to gain this, we need information and two-way conversations.   

When we start to make the changes, it takes time, a compelling vision, and in our experience, many, many conversations – in order for those further down the organisation to understand and buy into the new ways of working.  

It's key to remember, resistance is a good thing. As we can see on the left-hand side of the change curve, we might experience people who are denying that change will take place, carrying on as usual, or those who are acting out their resistant behaviours. They may be angry or do less obvious things like not turning up for meetings, not copying people into emails, or not turning up for work. These behaviours, whilst challenging, demonstrate that people are “asking for help to understand the change”; they know it is happening, and they need help to move from anger to acceptance.  They cannot do this alone and need help from their line managers.

Supporting your team at times of change

It requires a lot of your time to be an effective manager during times of change. You must have patience and accept that people may act in unforeseen ways. In both formal and informal spaces, managers must repeat messages and take the time and space to bring their teams along with them. By taking your team through each step of the change curve and working through the challenges, you can support your people to understand what changes are required - at their pace - and to begin to experience new ways of working and relating.

Get in touch to find out more about how we can support your teams react to change, and how we can help your managers evolve their leadership at a time of transformation to ensure change management is a success.