How to live change well?

Major changes in a company, such as outsourcing or restructuring, generate stress, fear and even conflict. As managers, how can you help your employees to accept changes in the organisation?

First of all, there are different types of changes in a company. For example, you may be confronted with a reorganisation of activities, the way of working, restructuring, outsourcing, etc.

What are the impacts on your employees?

The consequences of change in a company vary according to the employees. From a practical point of view, your employees may have to work with new tools, change teams, managers, buildings, or even leave the company.

From an individual point of view, changes in a company first create a shock. This is followed by a phase of denial, a period of stress, fear and even loss of self-confidence. How long this phase lasts will depend on the attention given by the leaders of your organisation to your employees.

Gradually, the acceptance of the situation should prevail over the stagnation and worries. And more quickly if good change management principles have been applied by management and coaching teams. When this is done, the company’s employees will be able to explore the opportunities associated with these changes in the company. They will look for and test ideas to achieve new goals. Then, your employees will be committed to the common cause of the change you advocate. Some of them will become ambassadors for the changes in the organization, and thus valuable allies in implementing them.

As a manager, how can you help your employees?

As a manager, you must first of all support this change and set an example for your employees. However, you should also give employees the opportunity to be the bearers of this change, by giving them autonomy. Let them share their ideas so that they feel involved. Your team will emerge stronger.

Don’t forget the human aspect too. Avoid thinking only about numbers and your business goals. Consider that you are working with colleagues. Give them the opportunity to express (anonymously?) how they feel about the situation, and multiply the communication channels, like a suggestion box. Also inform your employees about the processes that will be used to implement changes in the company. Your employees’ words will be more easily freed up.

Secondly, a change in a company requires time, more work and more human resources. Avoid rushing ahead for the sake of savings, as you may not see certain obstacles. Call in external experts if necessary, in order to achieve your objectives.

Finally, once you have reached your goal, measure the success of this organizational change. Ask yourself about the results. For example, did your employees adopt this change? What could be improved?

10 Change management principles summarized:

1. Trickle down approach,
2. Understand that you’re affecting actual people,
3. Change needs to include culture,
4. Give ownership to employees,
5. Commit to good communication practices,
6. Resource it properly,
7. Commit to good engagement processes,
8. Change at the right pace,
9. Expect the unexpected,
10. Measure success.

My experience before I started NewGen Sourcing:

“I have worked under pressure for a long time, being results-oriented. When I changed jobs, I took the place of a team leader of a dozen people. I set a few priority goals with the team, and went headlong into achieving them. This led me to unwittingly develop a different communication with certain collaborators. An internal company assessment of managers overwhelmed me. My team had to speak anonymously about how satisfied they were with working with me. My result was poor. In order to understand the reason, I organized a meeting with the whole team. Each person spoke freely about the situation, the problems gradually resolved. I understood that I should give the same attention to each employee. That everyone deserves the necessary and sufficient attention to their professional development. In the next evaluation, I almost had a flawless one. The lesson was learned. The change brought about by my arrival in this team was badly managed. And I was primarily responsible for it.”