Embracing Change

PERSPECTIVE

Most individuals and organizations accept the notion that change—while not always welcome—is inevitable. They know that industries, companies, and jobs must adapt, evolve, and innovate to survive. However, the pace of change in our workplaces has exceeded the horsepower of traditional change management practices. Ironically, these practices themselves now need to change, and catching up will require shifting to a people-centered approach that emphasizes a strong culture, empowers leaders at all levels, and provides transparency and voice to employees during the change process. Managing rapid and disruptive change may never be easy, but it can be far more effective when it focuses on people and their wellbeing.

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INTRODUCTION

Between refining hybrid ways of working, adopting powerful new technology, and contending with an ongoing talent shortage, a perpetual state of change has become the new normal. According to Gartner, the average employee experienced 10 planned enterprise changes last year, up from two in 2016¹ (not to mention unplanned changes). Yet despite the ubiquity of change in the modern workplace, the mere mention of the word can still create feelings of skepticism, anxiety, and fear among employees, in part because organizations’ change management plans have fallen flat—only 15% of employees feel confident their leaders can manage change and disruption in the future.²

Traditional change management practices, which tend to be linear, top-down, and process-oriented, no longer fit our evolving work environments. They also fail to involve employees (and many managers) in the planning. In short, they underestimate and under-prioritize people. This explains why Gartner finds only 34% of all organizational change initiatives are considered a “clear success” and 50% are “clear failures.”³

Fortunately, there are some clear solutions.

It’s time for organizations to make their people the center of their change strategies. As our research shows, doing so will increase employee wellbeing, strengthen workplace culture, and remove friction from change management processes.

In fact, employees at people-centric organizations are 12x more likely to say their experiences with change were well-managed and 11x more likely to say their experiences with change were positive. The odds of other beneficial outcomes such as feelings of inclusion, desire to stay, and less burnout also dramatically improve with this approach (5x, 5x, and -78%, respectively).

The fundamental truth is no organizational change is effective or lasting without the support of employees. So the sooner and more completely organizations earn that support, the more successful any change will be.

“Change cannot be put on people. The best way to instill change is to do it with them. Create it with them.”
—Lisa Bodell, CEO, FutureThink

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Focusing on People Requires Focusing on Culture

By definition, a people-centered approach to change management means keeping employees in mind throughout the change process. This requires strong communication and healthy workplace culture. In cultures with high trust and mutual respect, employees are more receptive to change.

According to our research, three specific communication and cultural factors make a difference in employees’ experiences with change. As detailed in the following table, the most impactful are having support and genuine communication.

One key element of cultures that feel supportive and genuine is employee recognition. When people believe they are seen and valued, they can be more confident the organization is implementing change with them in mind. Employees at organizations with highly integrated recognition⁴ (where recognition is frequent, meaningful, and embedded in the culture) are significantly more likely to:

• Feel they have adequate support to deal with change (9x)
• Believe leaders have the tools they need to help employees with change (8x)
• Trust the organization (10x)
• Believe the organization cares about employees (9x)
• Think change is managed well (9x)
• Believe changes made are positive (8x)
  

In fact, 92% of employees at organizations with integrated recognition believe change in general to be positive. Additionally, they are 18x more likely to say they hope to be at their organization in a year and 5x more likely to say they plan to stay for at least three more years. Having a healthy workplace environment with culture-building activities like integrated recognition is a critical foundation for people-centered change.

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Leaders at All Levels Must Be Empowered to Manage Change

Traditionally, change management is a top-down process, where senior leaders make decisions that mid-level and frontline leaders execute. This can lead to increased stress on middle managers and explains why they often feel like “shock absorbers,”⁵ responsible for the impact of the organization’s choices and changes on employees but removed from the conversations behind those changes. To alleviate this conflict, leaders at all levels must be intentionally and generously informed and equipped to help their people manage change.

Our research finds only 27% of leaders feel strongly prepared to help their people navigate change. And according to studies by Willis Towers Watson, only 22% of leaders believe the training they received to manage change was effective.⁶ It’s simply not enough to inform leaders of what changes are coming and why. Organizations must include leaders in the change management process by soliciting and listening to their feedback, giving them the tools and resources needed to help employees embrace the change, and training them on how to co-create a smooth change process.

Employees who perceive their leaders have the tools to help them manage change are:

Importantly, when leaders have the tools to help employees manage change, their own risk of burnout decreases by 73%.

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“Despite realizing that change is necessary, employees are often afraid of big changes in the organization, preferring the dissatisfaction of the status quo to the risks of a new reality. Often, the most important thing a manager can do is not identify the need for change but provoke the momentum to begin and maintain the change.”
—David Garvin, Professor, Harvard Business School

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Having a Voice Helps Employees Process Change

As illustrated in our experiments, even when people know change cannot be avoided, having a voice in the change can improve their perception of it. Examples of voice include participating in surveys or focus groups, giving feedback in town halls, or having one-to-one conversations with leaders.

When employees have a voice in organizational changes, there are greater odds of:

• Belief the organization is people-centric (8x)
• Feelings of trust (8x)
• Sense of community (5x)
• Thriving at work (3x)
  

Employees with a voice are also more likely to feel a sense of belonging and fulfillment at work, both of which help decrease burnout.⁷

Ultimately, we see change management that’s positive and people-centered significantly impacts employees across several cultural metrics, as shown in the next table.

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Recommendations

By focusing on culture, empowering all leaders, and giving employees a voice, organizations can make change a more positive experience.

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1.  Create a healthy culture for change

A culture where employees have high trust and feel valued can safeguard against negative feelings related to change. Similarly, practicing modern leadership—mentoring, advocating, connecting, appreciating, and inspiring people rather than gatekeeping, commanding, or controlling—can help build a thriving culture where employees feel a sense community and lessen the sting of change.

Employees with modern leaders have 3x greater odds of seeing change as positive, partly because modern leaders foster the six Talent Magnets—core elements of workplace culture that together determine employee decisions to join, engage with, and remain at any place of work.

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“What people resist is not change per se, but loss.”
—Ronald Heifetz, Founding Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University

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2. Empower all leaders to lead (and manage) change

Just like employees, leaders need help to make change successful. Give them as much information as possible about what the change is and why it needs to happen, as well as time to absorb the news. Decentralize the change management process so leaders at all levels can be involved. And empower organic, grassroots solutions for change. For example, ask leaders what they need to support change for their employees and deliver on it. Get their feedback on how to make the change easier and help them have better conversations with their people. When leaders feel prepared to both lead and manage change, they also feel more empowered, as demonstrated in the following table:

3. Develop a consistent, transparent communication strategy

Create a robust communication plan and use it early and often. Give leaders at all levels information and tools to talk about the change with their teams. And train them to communicate in a way that’s transparent, builds connection, and allows employees to give feedback. When leaders do this, employees are 3x more likely to say communication with their leaders around the change feels genuine and 3x more likely to believe they have adequate time, support, and opportunity to speak up during the change process.

As shown in the next table, when communication during change is early, frequent, clear, and honest, employees are also more likely to believe their organizations care about them.

Holistic communication throughout the process—before, during, and after the change—is key. And end the experience positively. When employees feel a sense of closure following the change, the odds are 5x greater they’ll be satisfied with their involvement.

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4. Give employees a voice in change by seeking their feedback

Surveys, focus groups, town halls, and one-to-one meetings all impact perceptions that change is positive; however, when organizations use all four methods of gathering feedback, the odds that the change is perceived positively improve by 1,284%.

As the following table shows, when organizations solicit, use, and acknowledge feedback, employees are less likely to feel anxious and more likely to stay.

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Embracing Change—Key Takeaways

The future of change management focuses on people.

A strong culture is the foundation of a people-centered approach to change.

Organizations must empower leaders at all levels to help teams manage change.

Employees want transparent communication and a voice in the change process.