A New Approach to Change Management

In the late 1940’s, social psychologist Kurt Lewin introduced a three-stage approach for organizational change. His model - unfreezing, moving, and refreezing - has served as the foundation for many of the change management frameworks and models that exist today.

Change management clearly isn’t new, but for many organizations it is just now becoming a must-have capability. A recent search on LinkedIn showed more than 160,000 change management jobs are currently available in thousands of companies across the United States.

This is not surprising, considering the workplace disruptions - and advancements - caused by the pandemic over the last year. From hybrid working to digital transformations, CEO’s recognize they can achieve better results if change management is integrated into business strategies and plans.

While it is great to see the value of change management realized in this way, it also serves as a call to action for practitioners, many of whom were trained to manage change in a pre-pandemic world. The good news is that the foundational principles and practice steps for managing change remain the same. The modifications apply to the role and responsibilities of the change leader, whose job is far more complex in today’s highly distributed, technology reliant workplace.  

Strategies to manage resistance, for example, such as sponsorship and communications, require more effort and different tactics as remote employees disconnect from the business office and the relationships that have historically played a role in influencing behavior change.

In addition, people are working more hours than ever before as the lines between work and home blur and uncertainty about the future looms. Stress, a workplace problem long before the pandemic, has risen to an all-time high as workers struggle with multiple sources of stress and the associated symptoms.

Stress, whether people realize it or not, is a leading barrier to change. Frequent stress negatively impacts the brain, impairing cognitive functions such as learning, decision-making, and judgement. As a result, people who are stressed out have trouble focusing on tasks, make more errors, resist new ideas, engage in more conflict, and are more likely to experience burnout and quit.

Stress also releases hormones into the body that inhibit immune system response, which can lead to more frequent illness and days away from work. Presenteeism, which is defined as physically being at work but not working, can also occur due to poor employee health.

So, What to Do?

At the organization level, strategy and planning activities must factor in the employee experience to ensure and sustain performance. This could include scenario planning that considers when and where employees want to work, developing an upskilling strategy that builds digital, leadership, or interpersonal skills, or redesigning employee programs and policies.

For change leaders, the shift is subtle but equally potent. Instead of focusing on how to manage the people side of change, the new approach is to care for the human side of it.  

Caring for the Human Side of Change

Caring for the human side of change is how leaders turn empathy into action. It means not just identifying the reasons for resistance – fear, loss of control, overwhelm – but taking steps to help people reset, recharge, and build resilience.

These steps can be as simple as training managers to hold more frequent check-ins with team members during times of change and disruption, or to reserve the last five minutes of every meeting for “mini-breaks” so workers can stretch, practice breathwork, or get organized. Self-reflection exercises, done individually or as a team, are useful tools to help employees overcome any self-concerns that come up when changes are introduced.

Caring for the human side of change focuses on building connection and a sense of belonging. For change leaders, this could mean creating forums for employees to openly talk about the current state of well-being, identifying champions who can provide support and encouragement to peers, or turning implementation activities into opportunities for colleagues to get to know each other beyond their professional roles. 

For technology forward organizations, resilience training can be delivered via digital tools that also track, analyze, and recommend skill-building programs tailored to the individual. Correlating the link between organizational resilience and company performance is not only possible, but scientifically proven.

The Future of Change, Managed

All change, even positive change, can be stressful. Change leaders, who already are focused on helping people accept, adopt, and sustain organizational change, are perfectly positioned to help transform the employee experience and it all starts with incorporating well-being concepts and tools into their practice.

By caring for the human side, practitioners can approach organizational change from a different perspective, with new strategies and tools that target behavior change at its core. Caring for the human side equips change leaders to deliver value from internal initiatives - and build people up in the process. As the saying goes, a rising tide raises all boats. By adopting a new approach to change management, we can build sustainable companies where both profits and people thrive.