Beware.
Pretty quiet at work. Business is routine. Problems come up. Problems are solved. Work gets done. Everybody is happy.
Look out.
Change is lurking in the shadows. Surreptitious plans are being made. New strategy. Shifts in direction.
So quiet.
Until…
Shock.
Like Godzilla unleashing his fearsome powers, a sudden organizational change management event lays waste to your team’s serenity.
Organizational change management is one of the most daunting challenges for leaders and their teams to overcome. The most common changes involve M&A, massive reorgs or turnover at the executive level. In many cases, all three changes happen concurrently. Sudden and swift, change management events trigger Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) in people. Consequently, stress levels increase, trust erodes and morale plummets.
Sigh.
Yeah.
Not a great time.
Not a time to give up, either.
Once the shock of a Godzilla-style change rampage wears off, survival will be our top priority. Otherwise, stress, distrust and low morale will eat away at us, turning us into miserable shells of our former hardy and relatively happy selves. Babble-speak isn’t going to help the situation. You know, drivel like: Use your core competencies to leverage synergies so you can adjust to a paradigm shift and start building consensus to be a strategic fit for the new ecosystem. Godzilla vs. Babblespeak. Now, that’s a movie I want to see. I know who I’m rooting for!
Let’s devise a realistic survival strategy for leaders who need to manage through organizational change management. We’ll explore the downsides and upsides of change management. Yes, there are upsides! Once we better understand the good and the bad, we’ll come up with actions that leaders can take to survive organizational change management.
Downsides
FUD
Change is hard for people to accept. Abrupt change that impacts a person’s livelihood sends a shock wave of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt across an organization. FUD is corrosive. People start to fear the loss of their jobs. They begin to feel uncertain about their roles or priorities. As if fear and uncertainty aren’t bad enough, doubt rounds out the dreaded acronym, ranging from doubts about new leadership to doubts about the company itself.
Low morale
FUD, of course, is a morale killer. Additionally, be prepared to ride an emotional roller coaster. People will be feeling grief over the changes, running the gamut from anger to sadness. The old way is being replaced by the new way. That means people and processes will be going away. New leadership will scrutinize, and maybe criticize, the old way of doing things, making our team members feel inadequate, feeding the FUD monster.
Chaos
Organizational change management events pull people in many different directions. Goals are unclear during the initial stages of change management. Priorities stack up or constantly shift. Ambiguity rules. Our teams have to do their old jobs and take on new responsibilities. And manage their FUD through it all! People also leave, voluntarily and involuntarily, which leads to further chaos in the continuity of operations.
Shift in leadership
Change management events almost always include a leadership shake up. Teams end up reporting up to a new boss at the top of the leadership chain. The new leader may have a different leadership style than the previous leader. In addition to FUD, low morale and chaos, our teams may need to adjust to a new leadership style, which can be challenging. Since trust takes time to build, there will be a lack of trust between all parties during the initial stages of the transition. Distrust is toxic and feeds the FUD monster.
Attrition
As part of the chaos, people are going to leave the organization. Not only will the changes from the turnover cause low morale, but they will also have an adverse impact on productivity. Teams will be expected to do more with less. Teams also lose many years of specialized institutional knowledge when people go, leaving knowledge gaps for those who remain. It can get to a point where attrition triggers even further attrition due to increased demands on the remaining people, causing even more toil on the small number of team members who choose to stay.
Loss of allies
Attrition will result in the loss of allies across an organization. Cross-team alliances are crucial for getting things done. As you lose allies, your influence will wane across the org. Lacking influence and allies, you will be at a major disadvantage as a leader. In many ways, you become like a new employee, even though you may have many years of service and achievements under your belt. This type of career regression is demoralizing for a leader and damaging to a team.
Phew! That’s a lot of downsides. Let’s look at the upsides.
Upsides
Challenge to the status quo
All organizations have long-standing issues dating back many years. Issues such as inefficiencies, tech debt, broken/bad processes, etc. Those types of issues are frustrating. We tried to fix them over the years to no avail. Maybe we lacked people resources to fix the problems. Or we couldn’t get commitments from other parts of the org. Or just when you think you’re going to tackle one of those long-standing issues, another priority takes precedence. With new leadership at the helm, you have a chance to challenge the status quo and get some of those things done. New leadership won’t be saddled with the baggage of years past. This is a perfect opportunity to leverage a new leader as a positive agent of change for your team and the org. Manage up!
Fresh perspective
Remember those long-standing issues? You’ve been viewing them through the same lens for years. New leadership adds the value of a fresh perspective, a new set of eyes to analyze systemic problems and work towards solutions. New eyes mean new strategies and techniques to tackle old and new problems.
Stimulate growth
Stability is comforting. One of the risks to any long-term employee in an organization is getting too comfortable in a role. Skills and knowledge become stale. Career development stagnates. When Godzilla comes to change management town, we’re forced out of our comfort zones. Instead of resisting change, we have the opportunity to embrace transformation and grow. You can use your growth mindset to embrace the challenges of change management and learn new skills along with taking on new responsibilities. You may fail or make mistakes in the process, but that’s what a growth mindset is all about.
New opportunities
Change isn’t all bad. If you embrace a growth mindset, you’re opening yourself up to new opportunities. Change opens doors to learning new skills or taking a new role in an organization. But you have to be open to the possibilities and willing to endure organizational disarray to explore those opportunities. You also have to weigh the risks. Consider the FUD factor. If you stay at the company with the intention of landing a new opportunity in the org, you’re gambling that things will fall into place for you after the rubble from the change management event settles. You may endure all of the aforementioned painful downsides, only to be shown the door in the end. At minimum, make sure you have your resume and LinkedIn profile up to date.
We have a realistic picture of the downsides and upsides of organizational change management. Time to take action. How do leaders survive the ensuing tumult, especially the downsides? We have two survival options: Adapt or Exit.
Adapt
So you wanna stay with the company and see the changes through to some end state? You’ll have to adapt to survive the downsides of change management. An open mind, growth mindset and turtle shell will be essential coping skills to use for your survival strategy.
Open mind
Open mind means being open to changes in org structure, policy, process or people. You’ll have to curb a natural tendency to cling on to the pre-change management mindset. Things like “But we used to do X this way” or “We’ve always done Y that way” won’t fly in the new order. You need to show the new leadership that you are adaptable to change. Also, be open minded about requests from new leaders. These requests may fall outside of your comfort zone. Your ability to adapt and get things done will demonstrate your value and build trust. Trust is the ultimate FUD buster.
Growth mindset
Growth mindset comes into play when the responsibilities of your role shift with the org changes. Be prepared to learn, struggle and fail at times. When you fall down, use your growth mindset to get back up, learn from the failures and try, try again. Growth mindset will help you to succeed at taking on new tasks outside of your comfort zone. You’re going to learn that growth mindset isn’t just another corporate buzz word. Rely on that frame of mind to survive the changes.
Turtle shell
Lastly, you’ll need to grow a turtle shell to protect yourself from the fallout of the downsides of change management. FUD, chaos, attrition, low morale and loss of allies will take a toll on you. You need to manage your stress and your team’s stress, plus potential unexpected fallout like new leadership pulling the plug on active projects, causing further damage to the morale of the people who put great care and effort into the project work. Turtle shells can withstand a lot of pressure. Invest in a deluxe model.
Embrace the new
Along with your coping skills, you’ll need to learn and embrace the new ways of the post-change management world to survive. New leadership and/or M&A will introduce new business terminology and corporate buzzwords into conversations. Learn how to talk the new talk. Adoption of new lingo in conversations will make it easier for you to build relationships and get things done. Additionally, learn and adapt to the new company culture. Cascade your adaptive behaviors down to your team. Show your team that you are committed to embracing the changes.
Take care of your team
Most important of all for people managers, you must take care of your team. FUD is going to tank your team’s morale and hurt their well-being. Your team will look to you for reassurance. “Will I still have a job” will be the top concern on their minds. For any leader who’s been through a traumatic organizational change management event, it’s frustrating to watch your people suffer through FUD, knowing you can’t offer such assurances. Listening is the best way for you to help your team cope with the stress of change management. Give people a safe space to raise their concerns or vent about the changes. You can also help by shielding your team from the chaos.
Showing care for your team won’t be enough. Being in a leadership role, you also need to keep your team focused on getting the work done. That won’t be easy. Once again, listening is essential. Ask your team what they need from you to help get their work done. Given their feedback, shift the focus away from enduring change chaos to solving problems, building momentum towards getting work done. Everybody needs to band together to survive change management, including any remaining allies on other teams. Lead the way by showing your team how this adaptive behavior will aid in their survival.
Take care of you
Are you still onboard with staying? You must take care of yourself. Repeat: Take care of you. Between the org changes, general FUD and demoralizing impact to your team, you’re going to get slammed in every direction. Good leaders who care about their teams often put themselves last, going the extra mile to make sure their teams are successful. Not this time. Not when you do multiple 1:1 meetings and listen to your team member’s fears over and over again. Not when you’re getting pulled in dozens of different directions. Not when you’re adjusting to the new leadership style. At some point, you will feel drained and demoralized, maybe powerless to be effective in your role. Make sure you take care of yourself. That adaptive turtle shell, while effective, isn’t going to ensure your well-being as a person.
Exit
So you’ve had enough of the change management tumult and don’t want to see the changes through to some end state? Exit. Yep. No need for a five million dollar verb or buzzword laden catch phrase. Exit. Time for you to move on.
This is about survival. Your survival as a person. Maybe you’ve tried to adapt to the changes and you’re feeling burned out. Or maybe, after considering the downsides, you feel like it’s not worth the effort and toil to even try to adapt. That’s okay. Remember: You have to take care of yourself. Self-care is one of the themes of this blog. I cannot put enough emphasis on the importance of taking a step back to consider if enduring a painful change management event is worth your soul.
Losing sleep over work? Exit.
Full of anxiety about work? Exit.
Taking out your work frustrations on family or friends? Exit.
Suffering from change fatigue? Exit.
Constantly fearing the involuntary loss of your job? Exit.
Lost all hope? Exit.
Had enough? Go. Go. Go!
Reaching a decision to exit will be especially difficult for long-time employees who built a successful career and developed good relationships with their teams during their long tenure with a company. Remember: All things pass. You may have to do some soul searching to accept that realization. Just make sure you do it before external forces eat your soul.
Conclusion
Organizational change management is one of the most difficult things to manage through for leaders and their teams. Change management has downsides and upsides. Downsides, such as FUD, chaos, low morale and attrition, are soul-crushing. Upsides may offer new opportunities and positive agents of change. Change management is about survival. Either adapt or exit. In the end, always take care of yourself.