Change Doesn’t Have To Be Hard

3 action-oriented change management tips for leaders

We’ve all heard the adage, “change is hard.”

But it doesn’t have to be.

Oftentimes, our aversion to change stems from a fear of the unknown. But the reality of change is rarely as catastrophic as our minds make it out to be.

And, as leaders, there are things we can do to help our teams more readily embrace change.

Marcus Buckingham, author and business consultant, recently unveiled new research related to resilience. In it, he shares that “humans do not function well when our senior leaders gloss over the reality. We don’t need them to sugarcoat in order to make us feel better. It won’t. It is far more frightening, and damaging to the psyche, to downplay tough or dark realities, or to pretend they don’t exist, because then we allow our imaginations to run riot, and who knows what kind of demons we can conjure in our mind’s eye.”

Instead, Buckingham recommends that leaders get specific about what the change is.

“Show us up close and personal what real-world changes we will have to make in our lives, and tell us the truth about how these changes are designed to protect us. Show us in practice what our ‘new normal’ is and why, and then trust us to figure out how to live happily and healthily inside this new normal.”

Here are 3 ways to help your team process change by getting specific:

Focus on ‘the why’

Too many leaders stop at telling their teams what is changing when the more important message is why it is changing.

Communication expert Nancy Duarte shares that “many leaders don’t even consider the why from the audience perspective because it seems so self-evident to them, they think it’s obvious to everyone.” Duarte goes on to say that “when people know why they’re being asked to do something, they’re much more likely to do it.”

I once worked with a client who was making some changes to the benefits they offered, and ‘the why’ behind that decision was expense control. Their business had taken a hit, and making these changes in benefits would allow them to avoid layoffs.

The only issue was that they didn’t frame it that way.

As a result, employees felt like something was being taken away from them even though the decision was made to preserve their jobs. If leadership had communicated ‘the why’ more transparently, they could have increased employee commitment to driving a turnaround in the business while also re-directing their employees’ focus from what they were losing to what they were retaining.

You might be thinking, “But won’t the mere mention of ‘layoffs’ send waves of panic through my team?” Buckingham says that this kind of thinking doesn’t give our teams enough credit. “Suffering and difficulty must never be hidden from us. Instead, show them to us honestly and clearly and we will reveal — to ourselves and to you — our greatest strength.”

To frame your message around ‘the why’ take time to reflect and write out answers to the following questions:

Why are we doing this?

What is the change?

How will it impact each team member?

If this is a small change that you alone are responsible for communicating, this can be jotted down for your eyes only. For a larger scale change that multiple leaders will be asked to communicate to their respective teams, polish it up, and ask them to refer to it when delivering the news. This helps ensure consistent messaging even across multiple messengers.

Build a communication plan

I once worked with a colleague who found out about a re-organization, and his subsequent demotion, when he noticed his job title had changed in Outlook. Someone in IT had gotten ahead of themselves when putting through the organization’s weekly title changes, and no one had actually spoken to this colleague before the update was made. Yikes.

This goes to show that when you’re communicating change, the order of the communication matters, as does who is delivering the message. When the person affected by a change hears about it from the wrong person or at the wrong time, you’ve lost his/her trust.

Take the time to strategize who needs to know what when by building a communication plan. Specify who needs to be informed, when they should be told in relation to others on the schedule (i.e. if a manager is being let-go, he should be told before his team members), where the conversation will take place, who is responsible for delivering the message, and a summary of what that message is.

Then, stick to the plan. When the controlled chaos of rolling out a change ensues, you can fall back on the plan to communicate thoughtfully and intentionally.

Anticipate questions

In most organizations, leaders are made aware of a forthcoming change long before team members are privy to such information. This means that you will have had time to sit with and process the news, ask questions, and gather more information by the time you share the change with your team.

Extend the same grace to your team members by assembling a list of FAQs and answers. Consider the questions you had upon learning of the change. Put yourself in their shoes and think through what they might be curious about. Keep a running draft of questions and answers, and add to them as you work towards announcing the change.

Depending on your message, your FAQs will vary, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

How will my job change as a result?

What will I need to do differently to be successful?

Who can I talk with to learn more about the change?

Should we expect additional changes to be forthcoming?

When you communicate the change, distribute these FAQs to the team. This will demonstrate to the team that you have considered their points of view and are committed to supporting them through the transition.

We spend a lot of time at work, and our professional lives are a huge part of our identities. But the impact of what happens at work extends far beyond our office or cubicle walls.

We are people. People with families, and commitments, and passions whose well-being hinge on our success or failure at work. When you think of it this way, is it really any wonder why change can feel so threatening to people?

But change doesn’t have to be hard. All it takes to make change more palatable to your team is a little forethought and a commitment to treating them with the dignity and respect that they deserve as human beings.

As their leader, only you have the power to do that for them.

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