Promoting change in the workplace, what to consider

• What is your relationship to change?

In order to enroll others towards change, have a good look at your own relationship to change and what informs your relationship to it. Does your current context effectively support your ability to change? Since you are driving the process, enrolling others starts with you being enrolled. Your team will only get what you have, will unconsciously tap into and read your energy, energy which reflects your true condition in this matter. Nowhere to hide, the result is directly informed by your own relationship to what you wish to implement. In this case “change”. The outcome you get is a representation of who you are being, consciously and unconsciously that is. This goes beyond your understanding, skills and what you know and what you don’t know. Life’s experience is informed by what happens behind the conditioning walls built by the conceptual mind. The outcome is informed by who you truly are. Change who you are being and your experience changes.

• Set expectations of ongoing change with your team from the get go.

Since “change is the only constant”. The sooner everyone is on the program the better. Once the notion “balance” is acquired and you know how to ride a bicycle, it is easy to do so. Being comfortable with doing something takes practice. Allowing practice is crucial for your team’s ability to master the art of embracing change. Who do you need to be as leader to effectively facilitate this? What if it is about providing your team with the capacity in form of awareness to “embrace change” rather than focusing on “changing the components”? An infant learns to walk by crawling, standing, falling and starting again until “walking” is happening. Isn’t it unfair that we expect our teams to embrace change while they might not be equipped with the required capacity and awareness to do so in the first place? Making it about “the content” or “stuff” to change in order to embrace change, is like focusing on “the walking” before the infant has the capacity to do so.

• What in ourselves resist change and why?

Let’s look at the internal mechanics around change, providing awareness and access to the capacity of embracing change.

The resistance to change stems from our identity being “identified with” and therefore “defined by” its experience and existing notion of self, hence, anything which is “other” than its current state, represents a perceived threat to its existing and predominant current condition. The Reptilian brain or R-system, (as per the triune brain model of the evolution of the vertebrate forebrain and behavior, proposed by the neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean in the 60’s), sends a signal in a form of a life force to our Neo-Cortex, giving us the experience of an uncomfortable “feeling”, also identified as being the cause for the flight, fight or freeze basic mode of reactions.

Any form of resistance, and in this case the resistance to change, is the by-product of a natural self defense mechanism designed to preserve the current state of being, aiming to safeguard our survival and present condition. Seeing this as a normal, natural and even useful condition, supports the individual to surrender to the uncomfortable feeling or “triggered state” by accepting this condition as a supportive fact. Consider that as far as muscle growth is concerned, it is similar. By Lifting weights, the muscles experience some tension, which is a highly uncomfortable state for the muscles and while having access to proteins, the muscles develop and grow. Without resistance or without any discomfort there is no growth, hence the saying, “no pain no gain”. We are looking at a similar principle in action regarding the mental and emotional developments. What you are aware of, you are ruling, what you are not aware of, is ruling you. Awareness is power in the sense that once the above is realized, alternative decisions can be made thereof. Once your team is aware of their internal conceptualizations that contribute to resistance to change, they have the capacity to manage their experience differently and effectively.

• What motivates the change and how clear it is for your team?

What is the end goal? what will be the predicted impact of the change and why the change should take place? Getting clarity is key and supports alleviating potential anxiety among the team members. Providing the team with enough details regarding these questions while allowing room for open ended exploration, contribute to provide your team with a safe foundation to build from. Creating a straightforward, positive, reachable and compelling vision of the intended outcome, using your team’s language in line with their representational systems and how they are viewing the world, cements their experience with their perceived notion of reality. This also supports them connecting the dots for themselves for added beneficial internalization and contribute to establish a sense of ownership over their experiences. Acknowledging what the team has achieved in the past and consciously linking the change to previous and similar positive changes, give access to a natural assimilation of the desired result. Chunking down the steps, presenting the challenge into digestible portions, also contribute to make the change accessible for your team since not everyone enjoys overstretched goals. Explain the timing, why is it a perfect time for the change to be made? What will be the logistics involved regarding the change? Are new capacities required to successfully manage the change? What training will be implemented to support the change? Are some questions that might be worthwhile exploring with your team.

• Make space for questions and constructively receive all resistance with acceptance.

If you want your team to embrace change, start by embracing where your team is at first. Even though it may seem counter-intuitive, embracing what we don’t like make space for it to pass, what-ever is resisted persists, and what is allowed passes. Openly discussing potential pros and cons of the proposed changes, while listening carefully, can support your team managing potential fears providing that you are picking up on real and often underlying concerns the team may have. What is not said per instance. Who do you need to be as a leader to facilitate deep and meaningful conversations with your team? Keep a watchful eye on body languages, are they matching the comments made? What if all you need to know is right in front of you and all is needed to access it, is your availability to it? Consider being flexible and prepared to shift some of the deliverables if need be. Negotiate this space, aiming to co-create win-win situations with your team. What are your team current beliefs regarding the change? Look into it and unpack all assumptions, making space for clarity and therefore reducing the level of anxiety around them.

A compassionate overview on the situation will greatly benefit your team, since deeply rooted in mental programming, change is ideally dealt with in a considerate manner to avoid pilling-up layers of suppressed stuff that will unconsciously influence the behavior of your team going forward. Many people are unconscious and are in “reaction” as opposed to be in “creation”. Often merely respond to what is thrown at them and if everything goes as per plan, maybe the team will benefit from the experience and you’ll get the outcome you want. What if you are in position to positively transform your team’s experience while meeting your organizational needs at the same time? Who will need to change first, you or our team?