The Dark Side of Change

The dark side of change.

Let′s talk about the hard stuff - it will not go away just by ignoring it.

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Change is an unavoidable ingredient in life. Whether we like it or not change is always around. Sometimes we trigger change ourselves, more often change is happening to us. And there seems to be a tendency towards a perception of change happening more often, faster and with a higher level of complexity and uncertainty (Google “VUCA” and you will understand)

This article addresses change and even more importantly the dark side of change - CONFLICT and BURNOUT - in organisations today.

Change Management has changed from being something that had a character of a magic wand in the hand of leaders to becoming a structured approach with its own methodologies, tools, and gurus. It is 25 years ago this year since John P. Kotter released “Leading Chance”. Back in 1996 it hit the sweet spot and addressed the need for a more structured approach when change came around and described the role of the leader to create the “sense of urgency” for the organisation to change and an 8-step approach to change management. It has been named by?Time?magazine as one of the most influential business management books of all time!

Today many big enterprises have change management embedded in the organisation either as a capability (e.g., with the project manager) or as a specific role in the team. Change management has reached the agenda of the leadership and I would argue that today most leaders have a sense of awareness towards the need to manage change in a more structured way.

However, there is still work to be done. In my 20+ years of experience in big global corporations with large scale transformations happening, I saw many occasions where a structured change management approach sponsored by the senior leaders could have made an impact. If we had made a proper analysis of the complexity of the change e.g., the groups impacted and risks and if we had involved more people earlier, I am convinced that the change could have been managed in a better way with better outcomes. As an example, I once experienced an almost entire Global Marketing team being paralysed during a large transformation and completely left “in the dark”. Imaging what resources could have been freed up if the leadership had dared to involve the team more and earlier. Building a so-called “Guiding Coalition” cross the organisation to help leaders set the right priorities is one of the most impactful things leaders can do. And yes, it does require additional work to establish, and yes it does take more efforts from the leaders and yes it does take time. But think of the alternative. A connected co-creating organisation has shown to create better work environment, higher satisfaction, and better performance. However, it puts leadership under the spotlight, and a lot of leaders are not comfortable with this, as it creates transparency and changes the role that you play as a leader. Your role is to constantly support the team with building competencies and help to move barriers out of the way. You need to be accessible, visible, and knowledgeable on human behaviour. You need to be the “trusted advisor” and that is not an easy role to earn. You need to be capable of creating a safe environment and at the same time be able to solve conflicts in a constructive way. Change is coming in your direction, and you will have to cope with it. In my crystal ball the role of the leader will transform radically in the coming years. There will be fewer positional leaders and a lot more expanded leadership or put in another way. Leadership will be dispersed into the organisation.

To make change happen at the speed that is apparently needed, the organisation needs empowerment that is practised and not only communicated in Town-halls and intranet pages. Leaders will have to create ecosystems where questions, ideas and feed-back from the organisation are welcomed as an opportunity to learn, to improve, and to create ultimate transparency.?If this does not happen the dark side of change is on its rice!

As Kotter, Akhtar and Gupta put it in their new book “Change”: “Pushing for change from a small controlling group will never work as well as a pull from a broad group that is inspired to want to see change happen. Hierarchy and analytics are neither the spark that catalyses change nor the key energy source that can create seeming miracles that benefit humanity.”

My best leadership advice: “Take chance out of change by taking change serious – change needs caring leadership”.

Conflict is something that most of us try to avoid. It feels awkward and uncomfortable. But need it be so? I question that. And yes, conflicts can be exhaustive and energy draining, but my argument is that they can also be triggers for a constructive journey from current state of confusion and frustration during a change to a future where we address conflicts as opportunities to become better colleagues and better teams. I would even argue that it would be measurable on the performance. Why is that? I believe that if you can handle a conflict in a constructive manner, it will create opportunity spaces that would not have been revealed if the conflict had turned dormant. In one of my previous jobs, we had a plastic trout that we always placed on the table during our management meetings. “Put the fish on the desk, no matter how much it smells” was our mantra in the team. We had sometimes very intense discussions but always with a clear focus on the topic (the fish) and not the person. This was our guiding principle and I dare say that it helped us to create better results and helped us communicate with one voice to our teams. I also felt that respect and caring for each other grew in that period.

During change there is always conflicts. Smaller or bigger, they are there. Especially as I have experienced during a big merger if there is no room for raising concerns and asking questions to the senior leaders. If they preach a “common mindset” (whatever that is) and do not allow for alternative experiences during the transformation it will create procrastination throughout the company.

So how do you address conflicts. First, we must agree on the problem being the problem, and not the person being the problem. If we look at the person as being THE problem, it is difficult (impossible) for that person to look at the problem and do something with it. The person can feel guild and be ashamed and that will not create a good environment to work on a solution to the problem. If we externalize the problem from the person, we can look at it, and discuss how we can solve it or change the environment that created the problem. We can help the person to better understand why the problem is there.

Let me give an example: If a person in a team did not understand the change and was asking a lot of questions to the leader, one reaction could be something like “Why are you always asking all those questions? You are not positive, and you are creating a lot of negative energy in the team”. So, if I was that person, I would most likely stop asking questions and feel that I was treated unfair. What could have been done instead by the leader goes something like this: “I see you are asking a lot of questions. I am certain that some of the other team members might think the same, but maybe they are afraid to ask. I suggest that we take this up with the team, so everybody gets a chance to discuss what could be the impact of the changes. I would also like to better understand, what is your concern regarding the changes. In my experience if you are concerned about a change and its consequences, it is because something is important to you, and I would like to understand what that is, so I can support you in looking for possible solutions. I would like to thank you for being open and asking questions.” The problem was externalised, and the person was recognised.

I am convinced that an approach like this would create a very different feeling in that person. I would even argue that the person could feel appreciated and respected by the leader.

What the leader did here was to create transparency. It is ok to be frustrated and confused during a change process and even small things (in the eyes of the leader) can be important (e.g., moving to a new office, changing place in the office, moving to an open office space). If the leader can be empathetic and “tune in” on what is top of mind in the team, I think that it can create a better environment, where people dare to ask questions.

Most people understand the need for regular changes in an organisation and if they get involved early, they can play an active part in the change and feel appreciated even if the change will have a big impact on them. ?If on the contrary people are not feeling involved or informed the energy bar changes from green to red very quickly. Conflicts will pop up, and the work environment can become toxic. Leaders isolate themselves from the team. The dark side of change is at work.

My best leadership advice: “Take conflicts as opportunities to learn and evolve – conflicts are not dangerous – involve the team early”.

Burnout is a strong word with strong connotations. The Japanese has a word, “Karoshi”, that literally means “dying from burnout”.

People who experienced burnout very often felt isolated, ashamed, and guilty of not being able to take care of themselves. In many cases people that are hit by burnout will not come back to their jobs. I once heard a specialist in burnout saying something like this: “The only thing that can heel burnout is time”. Meaning that if you are hit by a severe burnout, it can take many months before you can go back to work if ever. In her new book “The Burnout Epidemic” Jennifer Moss states: “We′re ignoring the systemic and institutional factors that are real causes of burnout”. It is not only the responsibility of the individual who is hit by burnout. It is the structures under which we work, that foster and accelerates burnout. I hear repeatedly that we live in a world where everything is becoming more complex, interconnected, accelerated and uncertain. People are hired in on short-term contracts more and more (the so-called Precariat) and psychological safety does not exist any more. So, what is my point here? I would argue that these structures create isolation and alienation and works against creating strong teams and feeling of belonging. The dark side of change is again at work!

I experienced a burnout myself in 2005. I was lucky to be surrounded by people who cared for me and helped me to get out of an unhealthy environment. It became a game changer for me and my attitude. I became a caring person. Not only to peers, managers, and team but to myself. I still make mistakes and I still get caught in feeling overworked, not in control and not recognized however I now know my values and I will not allow people to step on my toes (values). I decided to engage myself into work that would help supporting a structure that supports a culture that supports the feeling of belonging, psychological safety, and trust. As Jennifer Moss says: “Culture thrives in the small things”. “How are you” can be more than just a phrase. It can be an open invitation to get involved and show that you genuinely care. “Let′s go for a work” or “Is everything ok” can be an invitation to connect and share what is on your mind. Feed-back should always be welcomed. I believe that it is easy to reveal a company’s true culture just by looking at how feed-back is received by leaders in the organisation. Some say that “it is cold at the top”. Well I argue that we should change the temperature and bring more warmth up there!

The world may have become more “VUCA” (my wife′s grandmother would have disagreed to this after experiencing the industrial revolution and two world wars). This did not happen by some “out-of-space-invasion”. This happens because we allow it to happen. If we want, we can change this. It took a Swedish school girl to embarrass the worlds leaders at COP26. Of course, we can change things.

My best leadership advice: “Take the responsibility for creating an environment that takes burnout serious – do not leave it to the individual – reach out because culture thrives in the small things”

If you want to know more (and this is only the beginning):

Jennifer Moss “The Burnout epidemic – The rise of chronic stress and how we can fix it”

Gerald Monk & John Winslade“When stories clash. Addressing conflicts with narrative mediation”

Jeffrey Pfeffer “Leadership BS – fixing workplaces and careers one truth at a time”

Martha C. Nussbaum “The Monarchy of Fear – A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis”

Dennis Noermark & Anders Fogh Jensen ?Pseudowork – How we ended up being busy doing nothing”

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic “Why do so many incompetent men become leaders (and how to fix it)”

Morten Munster “The return of Debbie” not yet translated into English. Danish title “Jytte vender tilbage”

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All these books inspire me daily. I am certain that there is a lot more out there. Please share if you have some favourites! And do reach out! #conflictmanagement#burnout#changemanagemen#