Change invokes fear and uncertainty in your team that can be managed, but requires a concrete plan in order to be effective. In times of uncertainty, even your top performers can end up demonstrating behaviours that sabotage your change efforts and their career. As managers of the change effort, it is clear to you where you are taking the company or department, and the plan of how to get there is often within at least some of your control. This control offers you a tremendous opportunity to have a positive impact on the people around you, particularly on those who will not have any control over how the change affects them. The greater your planning the greater the positive impact you can have. Here are some elements to consider when you are managing or helping to manage, a change effort:
Communication – when and where appropriate the more information you can pass on to your team the less uncertainty they will experience and the more focussed on their work rather than a fear of the future of that work. Inform team members of the company’s new direction, goals, mission and vision and reassure them of their place in it.
Listening – the other side of providing information is seeking it. Your team can tell you firsthand what would be most helpful for them and are a gauge for how effective your communication methods are. If rumours about job losses are being perpetuated when you thought you had been clear that no further terminations were planned, seeking the breakdown in communication can ensure that your message can be both clarified and not repeated with the next item.
Setting Expectations – Are policies or procedures changing? Are new measures of performance being implemented? Set expectations with your team about what new processes are being rolled out and when or how they are expected to adapt. Be sure to define what expectations they can have about extra support or orientation to the changes.
Provide Timelines – some change efforts take months and others take years. Providing a timeline allows team members preparation for either the long haul or the very long haul. Sometimes the length of time a change effort will take is not immediately clear, particularly if the change is being implemented from a head office out of province, or from another company such as in a merger. In that case, you may be as unclear as your team is about the timeline. See point #1 and communicate that to them. Assure them you will pass on any timelines that are provided to you, and do your best to find out something that you can provide.
Effectively managing the process and experience of change efforts helps keep your team intact and on track through a difficult adjustment.
