Prevent Your Organization From
Imploding During Times of Change

by Gail Finger
Edizen Senior Consultant

Whether your innovation is about new technologies, new procedures, or new management approaches, if you don’t get employee buy-in to the changes, you are certain to get lots of the opposite: Resistance. Resistance comes in all shapes and sizes. It can range from the discontent of just a few individuals to opposition that permeates every department and causes your organization to implode.

Employee resistance can be extremely damaging, if not fatal, when implementing a new innovation. Just one person communicating distaste for the changes can quickly spread to other areas. Employees who have not been involved in planning the change, or who feel they had no opportunity to provide input, may decide the innovations are bad for the company, themselves and co-workers. With the best intentions, they will commiserate with others who feel disenfranchised and, together, they will thwart the change efforts. Employees will give verbal and non-verbal messages to customers and vendors that they don’t agree with the changes.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to undo the damage such resistance causes. The best strategy is to avoid it in the first place. Here’s how:

1. Include employees from all levels of the organization in the planning stage. Create a cross-functional team with members from all levels of the organization when planning the changes. This is a critical success factor. If you don’t do this, items 2-5 below won’t make a difference. Nothing irks employees more than to have decisions made by a group of upper level executives before soliciting any input from the folks in the trenches. Your employees have ideas about how to improve processes and want to contribute. They are your most valuable resource. Use them when planning change.
   
   
2. The CEO must create a vision and be intimately involved in the change process. The CEO must personally communicate to employees on a regular basis and take responsibility for motivating and leading the organization through the changes. When this happens, employees will have a better understanding of why change needs to happen, they will feel included because the CEO is taking the time to share information with them, and they will “catch” the CEO’s enthusiasm for the innovations.
3. Managers must all be trained on how to communicate additional information to employees, solicit feedback from them and respond appropriately to that feedback. Managers must also be trained to recognize when employee stress is high and what to do about it. Nothing spreads resistance more quickly than the rumor wheel in combination with high levels of stress and anxiety.
   
   
4. Create a group of Change Agents to move the innovation forward. Change agents come from all levels of the organization and typically volunteer for the role. They are trained on how to facilitate workshops on the upcoming changes for small groups of 8-10. That way, employees are hearing from their peers, everyone is receiving a consistent message and enthusiasm for the innovation increases.
   
   
5. Communicate empathy and understanding for how difficult it is to change. Whether you like it or not, there is a human aspect to change. Employees might be all for the innovations until it actually hits their own work area!

Your employees will either fuel your change efforts or thwart them. By applying these five simple rules, you will greatly improve the odds that your employees are on board and your change initiative succeeds.

Gail Finger is an organizational, leadership and management consultant with over 20 years of experience in the areas of human motivation, performance, and the psychology of change. She offers a wide array of services and programs that result in a highly motivated and productive workforce. They include leadership and management coaching, change management, team development, pre-employment assessments, and a variety of educational and experiential seminars.

EDIZEN Insights #21
© 2006 by Edizen Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
For feedback or comments: feedback@edizenco.com.
Feel free to call Edizen at 413-788-0077 / Toll Free 866-334-9362.

^ Top of Page | Print Version