How can you prepare your employees for organizational change? Is there a change management training option that delivers the skills and knowledge employees need to succeed in the face of overwhelming change? Over the past two weeks, we talked about the first two challenges employees face while going through a personal transition during an organizational change:
There is one more challenge faced by individuals during a transition:
The key to helping employees be proactive during a personal transition is to provide them with change-ready tactics they can deploy. Examples of tools to provide include:
A set of coping strategies
An understanding of common losses and endings
An Action Plan for self-managing through the transition.
Let’s take a closer look at each tactic.
Coping Strategies
When faced with a personal transition, individuals will typically choose one of these 5 coping strategies:
Once employees identify their “go-to” strategy, they need to ask themselves whether the strategy is actually working. Or not!
Common Losses and Endings
The reluctance to change is due not only to the content of the change, but to the endings and losses that go with it. Common losses and endings that can occur during a change include:
Once these endings are identified and accepted individuals are able to more easily navigate through a transition.
Action Plan
When individuals believe that they can take action, they unquestionably feel more in control. And when employees feel more in control, there is less resistance to change. In fact, giving employees a sense of involvement and control are key enablers to having a productive workforce in the face of overwhelming change.
IMA’s ChangePro Workshop is change management training for employees that helps them productively self-manage through the roller coaster of change. Are you doing all you can to prepare them for the ride?