One of the most common and most costly mistakes leaders make in implementing organizational change is underestimating the human element of change. They announce a change and expect people to get on board. And while some people will, many won’t, which often leads to resistance, causing a wave of disruption that can jeopardize the success of the change initiative.
This mistake compounds because leaders who underestimate the human element tend to interpret the fallout as a people problem rather than a planning problem. Resistance may be attributed to difficult employees rather than to poor leadership or a rollout that gave people no runway. A misdiagnosis like this causes leaders to apply pressure instead of providing support, which only deepens the problem.
Adapting to change is a skill set. Some people have developed strong cognitive and emotional tools for navigating change while others have not, and change will cause repercussions for everyone involved. Leaders need to understand the challenges they’re likely to encounter and be prepared for a variety of responses that will affect how people receive the change and whether they’re able to adapt.
The Seven Challenges of Organizational Change
There are seven categories of responses to change that leaders need to understand, plan for, and actively work to address:
- Emotional responses — People feel fear, grief, anger, or anxiety about the change. These are natural, and good leaders acknowledge these emotions, give space for them, and help their people move through their feelings to reach a point of acceptance.
- Interruptions to business as usual — Even minor changes disrupt routines, affecting productivity, quality of service, and revenue. Preparing people for change ahead of implementation can help to reduce these adverse effects.
- Survivor guilt — When colleagues are eliminated, those remaining often feel guilty, insecure, or disengaged. If not managed well, it can lead to further employee resistance and even additional loss of talent. Leaders should take the emotions of the team members affected seriously and create space to empathize and help people adjust.
- Trust and security issues —Poorly managed change can erode employees’ loyalty and belief that the organization has their best interests in mind. Approaching change strategically, communicating openly, soliciting and implementing feedback, and ensuring everyone understands its purpose and their role in the initiative all go a long way to promoting buy-in and creating a culture that’s comfortable with change.
- “We feeling” — Emotional responses spread. Negativity from a few team members can poison the atmosphere for many. Identify individuals who may have an overly negative view of change and work with them to ensure they feel heard. Similarly, identify individuals who can act as champions of change to promote positivity around the initiative.
- Change fatigue — Extended or frequent change leaves people burned out, apathetic, and skeptical. Assess potential changes carefully and implement them strategically, taking a proactive approach rather than a reactive one.
- Resistance — Employee resistance to organizational change is the cumulative result of leaving these challenges unaddressed. Change is difficult for most people, and resistance is a predictable human response to feeling unheard, unsupported, or unsafe. Rather than punishing resistance, help team members work through what they’re struggling with and give them the support they need to fully understand and buy into the change.
Adapting to change is a skill set, and some people are more skilled at adapting than others.
The Leader’s Role in Reducing Difficulty
Leaders can significantly reduce the difficulty of change by planning proactively for each of these responses. Before the change is announced, assess how each of the seven challenges is likely to surface on your specific team. A team that has been through recent layoffs will struggle with trust and survivor guilt more than a team that hasn’t. A team in the middle of an already demanding workload will run into change fatigue faster. Mapping those vulnerabilities in advance allows you to put support structures in place before people need them, rather than scrambling to respond after the damage is visible.
Check in with individuals regularly to understand how they are processing the change, provide answers and support, and give people adequate time to process before expecting full commitment.
On the other side, you need to recognize when someone’s resistance has become a barrier for the entire team. At some point, you must evaluate whether an individual who continues to actively disengage is serving the organization and address that situation directly.
Leading change requires genuine patience for the people working through a difficult transition as well as clear expectations about what commitment to the organization requires. Over time, teams that have been led through change well develop a different relationship with it. They have evidence that leadership communicates honestly, that their concerns get heard, and that difficult transitions don’t have to be chaotic. Then, when the next change arrives, they spend less time adapting and more time executing.
| Action Tip: Pace change carefully, communicate constantly, and create opportunities for individuals to be heard. People who feel heard are far more likely to commit to a change, even one they didn’t choose. |
