😞 The Impact of Too Much Change at Work

Whether it is planned or unplanned, change in the workplace is a given. Not surprisingly, many organizations have too much change happening at the same time. 

This is not only hard to manage, but difficult to experience. Too much change signals what’s NOT working in organizations. From a lack of oversight at the leadership level, to a lack of trust across individuals and teams, the level of coordination and collaboration is low.

This can lead to wasted financial resources, increased employee stress, missed business opportunities, and an inability to change or innovate.

With so many negative repercussions, why is change management undervalued or ignored by executives?

😶 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬.

This happens for a couple of reasons: for one, senior leaders are typically involved in the decision making. This gives leaders a greater sense of control, which studies have shown results in a stress-buffering effect – they are less anxious about change.

Those impacted by the change often have the least amount of control. They are usually the last to know, the first expected to change, which can lead to increased stress and reduced executive functioning.

The other reason is that studies show executives are more comfortable taking risks; they view change as vital to innovation and growth, while frontline workers tend to experience it as disruption.

❓ 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞?

By applying change management best practices to every change, which includes prioritizing and pacing changes according to scope, benefits, impacted stakeholder groups, duration, risk, and other factors of importance to the organization.

Prioritizing change to prevent too much of it from happening at any given time not only improves the likelihood of success – which means sustained adoption and benefits realization – but demonstrates caring and compassion for the people who work there.

Organizations that implement change well become places people love to work - and we all deserve to love what we do, don’t we? 💙

𝘙𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴:
𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘎., 𝘓𝘦𝘦, 𝘑., 𝘊𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘺, 𝘈., 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘳, 𝘑. (2012). 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘗𝘕𝘈𝘚 𝘝𝘰𝘭. 109, 𝘕𝘰. 44.  
𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘩, 𝘑., 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘻𝘻𝘪, 𝘔., 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘑. (2008). 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘔𝘤𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘺 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺.