By Aleigh Acerni

Winston Churchill once said: “There is nothing wrong with change if it is in the right direction. To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.”

But if you’ve ever experienced change in the workplace, you know just how tough it can be. Maybe you’ve got a new boss. Your company just merged with another. You’ve been promoted. All of these things are positive changes (hopefully), but that doesn’t mean the transitions will automatically come smoothly.

It’s human nature to resist change, or at the very least, question it every step of the way. A good technique for ensuring a smoother transition is to properly manage your employees’ reactions to change. Many organizations use a modified version of the Kubler-Ross model, created by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying, to manage reactions.

In the book, Kubler-Ross introduces what she calls the “stages of dying” that patients approaching death are said to experience. The steps don’t necessarily come in a particular order, and not all patients experience each step, but Kubler-Ross asserts that a person will always experience at least two of them.

In the organizational business world, this theory has been revised as a “change curve”—four general stages people go through in response to a change. A great way to manage your reaction (and your employees’ reactions) to change is to be able to anticipate and act appropriately when troubles occur. Especially since, according to a recent study of 582 companies by Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, companies plan to increase hiring of recent college grads in 2005 by 20% over 2004, and average pay could increase 4% to 7%—a change that comes after three years in which many college graduates found jobs hard to come by. Change is definitely on the horizon.

Here’s the four-stage change curve, and how to best respond to each.

– Step one: Shock. Shock is often the most immediate response to a change, and can frequently be accompanied by a drastic drop in productivity, especially in response to a major change.

At work, productivity may dip as employees attempt to process and understand the change. People will take more frequent breaks, longer lunches, and generally spend a lot of time at the water cooler to discuss what’s happened.

How to respond: Consciously create a flow of clear, focused communication throughout your organization. A specific plan of attack will allow your staff to feel more secure and know what to expect.

– Step two: Anger. Once shock subsides, anger often takes over. Productivity may continue to decrease, as the long breaks and lunches taken during the “shock” phase morph into complaint sessions.

People can get very emotional during this stage of the change curve, and productivity may take a permanent hit if employees’ personal issues aren’t resolved.

How to respond: Continued and focused communication. It’s tough to remain neutral and calm in the face of irate employees, but it’s important to stay positive and help employees focus on what’s in their control instead of complain about what’s beyond their control.

– Step three: Acceptance. Whew! The hard part is mostly over. When within the acceptance stage, most employees begin to take steps within their control to work within the change. Here’s where the change curve starts to be positive, and productivity will start to increase.

Employees at this point in the change curve will appreciate involvement in planning for the future, and for future change. This will shift some control back to the people who actually perform the work.

How to respond: Again, leadership is critical. To lead acceptant employees to improved productivity, a manager must stay positive and not slide back to the anger stage. Ideally, with good leadership, employees at this stage will begin to think in terms of solutions and not problems.

– Step four: Help. At this final stage, everyone within the organization begins to work well as a team—with employees stepping outside their comfort zones to help others and seek out help for themselves.

How to respond: Some celebration may be in order to formally mark the end of a transition and appreciate your employees’ involvement. Continue to present a positive drive and recognize employees who helped others through the process. Be sure not to claim all the credit, even if you initiated the change.

As 2005 inevitably will bring major changes—within our region, specific industries and even inside the companies surrounding us—a positive outlook and an eye for the future can only benefit your organization. Knowing these stages and anticipating the pitfalls that can come with them can help you be prepared for change as it happens, whether the change comes tomorrow or next month.

Aleigh Acerni is assistant editor of the Business Journal. E-mail her at ­aacerni@crbj.com.

SUBSCRIBE | REPRINTS | CONTACT US

Phone: 843-849-3100    Fax: 843-849-3122