The Art of Sensitive Change Management

In a recent interview with the Economic Times, Management Guru Ram Charan explained the importance of why top leaders need to be involved in bringing about transformational change in organizations.

Most companies manage incremental change but it is the transformational change that’s difficult. Any major change almost always requires a significant change in internal culture. That means some of the key decisions will be made differently. Resource allocation will change. Some of the things the company used to do when they were successful will need to be ditched. All this, says Charan, makes it imperative that the top people be hands on for driving change.

But, managing change can be a challenging task for top leaders. For the change initiative to be successful, it is important that employees be ready, willing and able to adapt, and be flexible to these changes. However, any major change initiative carried out in organizations can cause an imbalance in the work environment. People find themselves caught between the old and the new with one foot firmly planted in old familiar ways, and the other teetering in the new environment they find themselves in. It is human nature to want to feel a sense of balance and therefore, it is important that top leaders manage their change initiatives with sensitivity. A fast roll out of several initiatives together tends to reinforce the sense of imbalance and may lead to disaster. It is therefore extremely important that the change program be handled in a sensitive manner. Since, each of us responds to change in different ways, knowing the nature of the response of their employees, top leaders can evaluate and make the necessary course corrections in the change initiatives. 

But how is the top leader to know his employees’ responses? Author Mary Frances-Winters suggest a way.

All of us are different. Some are extroverts, others introverts. Some are quick starts, others fact-finders. Some are liberals, others conservatives. All of us, says Winters, have natural ways in which we respond to conflict—natural ways in which we each respond to change. Understanding the natural way of how people handle change can therefore be important for top leaders in managing change sensitively. Winter’s formulation of the six “types” of employee reactions to the changing workplace is a useful tool to enable this understanding.

1. The Foggies: Oblivious to the changes all around them.
2. The Fakers: Tell themselves and others that they are on board with change but make no personal changes to their behaviour
3. The Faultless: They see the changes around them, do not like them, and constantly complain.  They see themselves as hopeless victims of an unfair system.                  
4. The Fearful: Fear is a natural response to uncertainty.  Fearful people engage in self-protectionist, non-team-oriented behaviour.  There is low trust and oftentimes paranoia sets in.
5. The Fighters: There are two types of fighters. One who rejects change and ardently promotes a status quo position. The second type of fighter wants change and feels frustrated by the lack of progress.  They are vanguards, often seen as troublemakers by those who fear change.
6. The Futurists: These are individuals accustomed to change, and/or highly self-differentiated, or workers new to the culture.  They are adaptable, flexible, and global in their thinking.  They know that they are in control of their destiny.  They are career-resilient

 Winter’s formulation of the six responses is meant to facilitate employees to discover for themselves, their ability to find peace in the workplace. However, I believe, there is yet another important role the formulation can play.

Using the Six Fs Tool as a Change Sensitivity Monitor

I see Winters’ formulation serving as a tool for top leaders to understand the impact of their change programme on their employees. They can do this by categorizing their own perception of the responses to the change of each individual employee into the six types. By involving other key decision makers in the process, top leaders can eliminate their subjective bias in the categorization. The results of the combined exercise should enable a deeper understanding of the impact of the change programme on the employees. More importantly, it can help top leaders to examine the impact of change on individual employees, rather than holding a homogenous and amorphous view of the impact. The individual understanding can be used by top leaders to deal appropriately with each response; either in a one-on-one, or by appointing internal (or external) coaches for the deserving ones. The next step is to use this understanding to regulate and monitor the speed of change, and formulate strategies to bring everybody on board.  

And manage change sensitively.