When Faced With Change, Focus on the Transition
Do you feel that your organization is awash in change? Do you have a hard time keeping up with the shifting demands you face as a leader? You’re not alone. Unrelenting change is becoming the norm. Leaders have no choice but to adapt and to help others to adapt, too.
Organizational events such as restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, or financial problems force leaders to rethink their work and adapt to a changing workforce. Pressure to achieve results and to satisfy what are often competing demands builds the intensity. External factors — the economy, industry and market trends, globalization, political and social concerns, and rapid technological changes — all conspire to make leadership a complex, difficult undertaking.
Yet as we’ve all heard, “Change is the only constant in life.” And we know that to be resilient, both personally and professionally, we have to face change head on and get to the other side.
Effective leaders understand that successful change and transition requires more than just coping with change — and that the goal is not to “get by.” These leaders accept that change is happening; they hone strategies for dealing with the unknown; and they shift their behavior to accommodate new situations and challenges.
What’s the Difference Between Change & Transition?
To manage change, first understand that there’s a difference between change and transition.
- Change is defined as the situations and occurrences that impact organizations and individuals. Change creates the need to move from the way things used to be to the way they are now, such as a new boss, a move to a work-from-home environment, or a shift in policy. Adapting to change requires flexibility.
- Transition is the internal psychological process of adapting to a new situation. Transition can happen quickly or slowly. It’s the process of moving successfully from the old to the new. Here are our tips for navigating the 3 stages of transition.
Leading the Human Side of Change and Transition
Rapid change and constant transition have created a more emotional dynamic in organizations.
Uncertainty can trigger all kinds of behavioral and emotional reactions from leaders and the people who are affected by the decisions of leadership. Faced with a never-ending onslaught of organizational change, those you lead may experience change fatigue, so work to equip them with change resilience.
The complexity and intensity of transition is a reaction to change — and the more frequent or more dramatic the change, the more complex the process of transition. Yet, organizations and leaders commonly overlook or dismiss the human side of change.
As noted in our book Leading With Authenticity in Times of Transition, many managers have mastered the structural side of leading change — creating a vision, reorganizing, restructuring, and so on. They’re rewarded, evaluated, and educated to deal with the structural issues around implementing change, and so have more experience with that side of the issue.
But the stresses and pressures generated by structural or operational change lead to an increased need to pay attention to what’s going on with the people in the organization.
Research shows that 75% of change initiatives fail. Why? Managing change successfully requires leaders to deal effectively with both the structural side of leading change and the human dynamic of transition.
When the skills associated with either side are overplayed, leaders destabilize the organizational culture by eroding trust. Instead of a loyal, productive, and enthusiastic workforce, executives and managers end up leading employees who are insecure, fearful, and skeptical. By failing to gain sufficient buy-in from employees, leaders slow down and undermine their progress toward new goals.
When leaders ignore or minimize the people side of managing change, perfectly good strategies and change initiatives stall or fail.
Our research has found that leading transition involves guiding people though a process of grieving, letting go, building hope, and learning. In many ways, the bigger challenge for leaders is to manage the longer-term, human aspects of change: recovery, revitalization, and recommitment. These are required to become a more successful change leader.
With greater awareness of the human side of transitioning through change, you and your organization will be become more change-capable and able to move through change with grace.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Build your team’s capacity to adapt to change and transition more effectively with a customized learning journey for your leaders using our research-backed modules. Available leadership topics include Communication, Conflict Management, Emotional Intelligence, Leading Through Change & Disruption, Listening to Understand, Resilience-Building, and more.
