Pay Attention to the Spirit of Change

We business types seem to enjoy--and gravitate towards--discussions about Change. And it's almost always in the context of managing it, leading it, overcoming resistance to it...as if Change is somehow different than life.

It isn't. It is life.

Which means that how we approach our lives and what comes our way will influence how we approach things that are new and different at work. How we choose to respond to changes will determine our sense of success and  contentment, regardless of what comes our way.

It is, in fact, a spiritual issue. The world view that you possess will determine how you lead or respond to changes, and whether you will lift people up or cut them down in a display of anger or negativity.

I've been involved in leading or assisting  "change" efforts at numerous Fortune 500 firms. Some quite successful, most actually mediocre, a few downright ugly. So it's something that I've thought about often and quite deeply. Here are some conclusions I've reached:

1. Once you announce that you are undertaking a large-scale "Change", you've set the conditions for adversarial relationships. The human condition doesn't necessarily want change; it wants control.

 Therefore,

2. You have set in motion a struggle for control. Self-control, control of the situation, control of other people...

3. If you want to do something new or different, tell people you want to do something new or different. Tell them exactly what it is, why it is (reality), and how it will improve the business/workplace situation (hope). Then be prepared to "be there"--even more than usual--to support the effort.

Change models, for the most part, evolved from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' work "On Death and Dying." She did a magnificent job explaining the emotional cycle that people experience who are facing or dealing with death. In my experience, the model does, indeed, hold up in any situation involving changes. And it is for that very reason that the issue is always a spiritual one. People who are dying need to reconcile not only what is happening to them now, but what has happened in their entire lives--as well as resolving any unanswered questions regarding eternity.

Those of us facing changes at work do the same thing: we attempt to reconcile what is happening, what our career in the organization has been about, and what the unknown future will hold.

For that reason, I believe it's important for organization dwellers at all levels to have an understanding of the model. Everyone involved can then know how to respond in an uplifting or supportive manner when they recognize someone else experiencing a particular step along the way. (That also means painting reality for those who are stuck on Fantasy Island).

That said, my own experiences show this: Making "Change" the overarching theme in communication, training, and managing is a big mistake. It's not what you are about and it will drain the energy from the specific, meaningful improvements you have to make.

What to Do

If you truly believe in what you need to do, then do it. But first check out the spirit with which you are about to deal with the people who have to make it happen. What is it? Really?

If you are on the receiving end, is your response any different than to any other change in your life?

Whether  you are leading or following, the spirit with which you evaluate and participate will impact the accuracy and wisdom of your choices.  And those choices will determine business effectiveness and personal contentment in the days and weeks ahead.

It is a choice. And your choices are the only thing over which you have control. Be careful of the spirit with which you exercise them.

_____________________________

For a thoughtful read that may change your views about leadership, check Jim Stroup's series .

Want to change how people are talking about you? Really. One of my favorites from Duct Tape Marketing & Seth Godin.

And when it comes to changing Employee Engagement, there's no better resource than my friend David Zinger at Employee Engagement Zingers.

Comments

[Gavin Heaton]

I had not considered change as having a spiritual component before ... but now I get it. Perhaps it was something that I knew intuitively, but this will give me more conscious ways of dealing with opposition (or my own resistance)!

[Dan Erwin]

Steve: I assume you're referring to Kubler-Ross as the model for an individual to manage his or her emotional and control responses to change. Makes sense at that level...although I've never considered her stuff for that.. . but I will. Ha.

I use an enlarged form of Kurt Lewin's work on change and like it a lot: unfreeze, transition, and refreeze. Bill Bridges "Transitions" does a lot with that.

I appreciate your honesty on change. It's always messy business. The more concrete the culture, the more difficult the change. The only culture I've known that handled change easily was the old Pillsbury culture. Change was really the norm and after a few years most people could roll with it easily. What's intriguing is that when Pillsbury was bought by General Mills, a great number of the Pillsbury execs succeeded and quite of few of the GM execs couldn't--they had a very concrete culture and had some difficulty rolling with the punches.

I've worked with some organizational cultures fro whom just thinking about supporting a change management program makes my stomach curl. There would have to be a lot of $$$ for me to be very interested.

[Steve Roesler]

Gavin,

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I laughed when the comment alert went off as I was reading some of your tweets at the same time.

There is, indeed, a spiritual component. It has to do with the intent of the change and the heart of the person initiating it toward the people involved.

Glad it struck a chord with you and hope to see you at AoC 2010?!

[Steve Roesler]

Dan,

Yes, I was schooled, too, in the Lewin Model back in the NTL days and have always admired Bill Bridges' work.

Didn't know that about Pillsbury--good factoid. Along the same lines, most of the mergers and acquisitions in which I've been involved have been culture struggles masquerading as power struggles. The "issue" was certainly power but the precipitating events all rested upon "this is how we do (did) things here."

Thanks, Dan, for the corporate insight.