Change is inevitable. How do you adapt?

How do we really react to change??

We live in a world where change is inevitable. After going through the Covid-19 pandemic, entering post-Brexit life, watching Ukraine being torn apart by war, and the global economy predicting the start of a major recession, we all know too well the feelings that come with change.?

But what do we mean by change? While it can be categorised in a few ways, such as deliberate or spontaneous, and episodic or continuous, organisational professionals most often refer to a planned change, where businesses adapt to become more successful and competitive (Iles & Sutherland, 2001; Waddell et al., 2019). In practice, it can mean anything from smaller developments to large mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring. On a more individual level, it often comes in the form of a significant career transition.?

Why is managing change important??

Change can result in greater success if managed well. However, many projects are abandoned, financial objectives and cost reductions are often not met, and implementations and joint ventures frequently end up being ineffective (Decker et al., 2012). This is in fact so common, that about 70% of all change fails, and this figure has been stable since the 1960s (Decker et al., 2012; Ewenstein et al., 2015). The consequences of these failures can be detrimental: employees become less motivated, engagement levels drop, the high-performers and stakeholders start to leave, and it becomes increasingly difficult to hire new talent (Belschak et al., 2020).?

Change management gets even more complex as our perception of the challenges is also uncertain and shifting in nature. A common way to describe the current business environment has been through the use of the VUCA acronym – meaning volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, respectively (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014). Much has changed over the past decade, however, and even VUCA cannot describe the current chaotic and unpredictable context anymore (Kraaijenbrink, 2022).??

How does change affect us??

From a psychological perspective, change can have a substantial effect on the individual. Due to its uncertain nature, the brain tends to react to change as a stressor (Rafferty & Griffin, 2006). It creates a disruption in the habitual processes, which in turn signals to the prefrontal cortex that it is not in control anymore, resulting in worry and anxiety (Grupe & Nitschke, 2014).??

This state is characterised by an elevation of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, and is relatively widely known as the fight-or-flight response (Hannibal & Bishop, 2014). Just like in any other case of sustained and high levels of stress, this can lead to impaired decision-making, weakened immune system, and a decline in mental health (Yaribeygi et al., 2017).??

There are several ways to cope with change effectively and to manage or even counter these negative effects. How perceive stress can determine how we allow it to impact us. If we see change and the resultant stress as a means to overcome that challenge and be physiologically ready, we are more likely to be resilient, than if we see stress as a threat. When we do this, we can handle change more effectively.?

If you would like to know more about change, further tips on effective ways of managing it and hear how Zircon and guest speaker Spencer Bull have dealt with change in the past, check out the newest episode of The Chief Psychology Officer Podcast by Dr Amanda Potter and Angela Malik on ‘Facing up to change’ available on the official podcast website: https://www.thecpo.co.uk, as well as on Apple, Spotify, and Google.??

Written by Attila Simony, Business Psychologist and Dr Amanda Potter, Chartered Occupational Psychologist and CEO, Zircon.?

References?

Belschak, F. D., Jacobs, G., Giessner, S. R., Horton, K. E. & Bayerl, P. S. (2020). When the going gets tough: Employee reactions to large-scale organisational change and the role of employee Machiavellianism. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 41(9), 830-850. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2478?

Bennett, N. & Lemoine, G. J. (2014). What VUCA really means for you. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you?

Iles, V. & Sutherland, K. (2001). Organisational change: A review for health care managers, professional and researchers. NCCSDO. https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publichealthtextbook/5c/5c2_review.pdf?

Decker, P., Durand, R., Mayfield, C. O., McCormack, C., Skinner, D., & Perdue, G. (2012). Predicting implementation failure in organization change. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 16(2), 29-49. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/predicting-implementation-failure-organization/docview/1037985984/se-2?accountid=17234?

Ewenstein, B., Smith, W. & Sologar, A. (2015). Changing change management. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/changing-change-management?

Grupe, D. & Nitschke, J. (2013). Uncertainty and anticipation in anxiety: an integrated neurobiological and psychological perspective. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 14, 488–501. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3524?

Hannibal, K. E., & Bishop, M. D. (2014). Chronic stress, cortisol dysfunction, and pain: a psychoneuroendocrine rationale for stress management in pain rehabilitation. Physical therapy, 94(12), 1816–1825. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130597?

Kraaijenbrink, J. (2022). What BANI really means (and how it correct your world view). Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeroenkraaijenbrink/2022/06/22/what-bani-really-means-and-how-it-corrects-your-world-view/?ss=entrepreneurs&sh=7e1d5f1211bb?

Rafferty, A. E., Griffin, M. A. (2006). Perceptions of organizational change: A stress and coping perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(5), 1154–1162. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.5.1154?

Waddell, D. M., Creed, A., Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. (2019). Organisational change: Development and transformation (7th Ed.). Cengage Learning.?

Yaribeygi, H., Panahi, Y., Sahraei, H., Johnston, T. P., & Sahebkar, A. (2017). The impact of stress on body function: A review. EXCLI journal, 16, 1057–1072. https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2017-480?