Three Ways Employees Handle Change
Anticipating Employee’s Responses to Organizational Change
When your organization is facing obstacles that require change in order to succeed, staff, ie, the people in the organization, need to change.
Simple, right? Wrong! The problem for managers and supervisors is that most employees do not respond with the attitude of, “Fantastic! Another organizational change. I can’t wait to get started.” We have found that when change is introduced to an organization, or better yet, rumored, employees will respond in one of these three ways:
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Some of the strongest willed employees will resist organizational change, even when deep down inside they recognize that the change is in the best interests of the organization. Strong-willed employees are dinosaurs. They may be well on the way to extinction, but they will fight it each step of the way.
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This group’s responses are more moderate ones. These employees will not fight an organizational change because they do not think that the change will have a direct impact on them. They hope that the change will eventually pass by. These employees are rabbits. They will not actively fight the change. Rather, they are like a rabbit in the road who is staring at an upcoming headlight. Unfortunately, in many cases, the headlights are not a small car, but a huge truck. As fast as the environment is changing, the employee is eventually going to be hit!
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The third type of employees are the ones who are able to accurately assess the future and possess the flexibility to adapt accordingly. These employees are the dolphins. Dolphins, one of the brightest mammals in the ocean, possess the skills to adapt to any environment they swim in. Dolphins are quite comfortable swimming in a pool of carp. They are equally comfortable swimming in a sea of sharks. They successfully adapt to a constantly changing environment. Dolphins are always thinking ahead to what changes they need to make to respond to their rapidly changing environment.
Can you think of any other ways that employees respond to change, positively or negatively? And how do you work with them to successfully implement change?
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Filed Under: Leadership, Leading Change, Managing Layoffs, Peter's Blog on March 17th, 2010
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