How easily is change accepted? And why no-man's land slows down change.

Everyone is the subject of change throughout their lives and from a very early age. We change schools on 2 or 3 occasions, and in the UK school system we change teacher every year. We continue that change as we progress through our education, often changing homes to attend a University which brings and increasing level of change throughout the 3-4 years before graduation.

Once we start our professional careers, this is just the start of organisational change but for some this is where the fear of change will set in. Until the start of a working career, we seem to have accepted change far more easily than when work is involved. Is it the ignorance of youth that enabled our acceptance before or is it just the impact of adulthood that brings different pressures? Or maybe both. The extremes between these two points are different for everyone and we will all have a different level of change. And it is this step change that I often wonder is the foundation for a fear of change in people for the rest of their lives.

During the initial stages of people’s careers, there is an acceptance of change that seems to get less as they move through the organisation structure. For many people, they will settle into a role that they will not move from. Ever. And for me this is where organisations create future issues.

The ‘middle ground’ never had to decide if they were settling for a job in which they faced little/no hope of advancement

I read an article at the weekend that looked at if it was right that people are expected to keep moving upwards and if they fail to develop and keep climbing, there are dismissed. It made me consider my own views on career progression and I spent some hours deciding on whether I felt this article was right or wrong. For me, it was too extreme. I was told many years ago that not everyone can be the CEO in an organisation and expecting everyone to hold the same ambition and drive for it was unwise for any organisation. It just sets the wrong expectations and stops good people from just doing good jobs that need doing.

So here’s the continuum and problem:

Each industry will be represented on this continuum at different stages. Hospitality has a huge range of professions in one industry that will see groups of staff sit at all parts. The house-keeping staff traditionally sit in the role settling extreme; either filled by young people who will be transitory or other people who are working in housekeeping as a main job that meets their skills, a second job, a flexible job to support dependents or as a transition to retirement. The management teams often come from all backgrounds within the industry including graduates with little experience of hospitality. These people see an increased level of change both in their working practices and personal employment. This may be caused by a training programme that could see travel to other locations within a group of companies or through job application to other venues. Clearly, both are required to deliver the stability of service and the leadership. But then there remains the ‘middle ground’ – I’ll come back to these people later.

All staff groups need to be treated appropriately but due to their level of comfort with change, I would like you think about the differences between the groups of ‘role settlers’ and the ‘constantly upwards’.

Role settlers – your chance to reflect

I invite you to think about how you engage with role settlers:

-      Do you clearly identify those who may be averse to change and treat them any differently?

-      Do you give role settlers extra time to consider and adapt to a planned change?

-      In your industry, what is the main reasons that people have become role settlers?

And now consider the business implications?

-      Have you delayed or stopped a planned change because of the impact on role settlers?

-      Have the actions of role settlers cost your business because of their reluctance to adapt?

So now you’ve thought about the challenges, does this make you think of how to approach future change? Or has it made you more resilient to pushing through change as you can see that some people will be averse to change because of their background or simply selfish reasons?

No-man’s land

I’ve led many change activities across organisations with vast differences between staff groups. Several times I have been faced with ‘middle ground’ people who were not used to change but not through a conscious decision like the ‘role settlers’. They sat somewhere in the middle of the continuum and viewed change as something that happened to others. These people truly feared change.

The ‘middle ground’ never had to decide if they were settling for a job in which they faced little/no hope of advancement. Advanced was there if they wanted it. They had never consciously opted to leave a leadership programme due to the time commitment. They could still apply if they wanted. They worked their set hours; no more and no less. And no-one had ever challenged their coasting or sought to encourage a wider involvement.

Given the above background on a ‘middle ground’ person, consider for a few minutes the realisation that their offices was to close and centralise with another department but only a few miles away. 

My experience of such a discussion is speaking to someone who is now experiencing a level of change that they have not gone through since obtaining their first job. (Probably in the same office.) Their reaction is often horror, denial and anger that I would even suggest a change. Moreover, they certainly didn’t believe it would happen.

The future of work

The future of work sees more movement of people between projects and employers on a more fluid basis than ever before. Your business and your people need to be ready for it. And part of this work is understanding and mitigating the fear of change to keep pace with a rapidly changing external environment. people first HR software enables people to compare their talent profile against others jobs in the business. Not necessarily for advancement, but potentially at the same level in other departments. This transparency and the ability for people to own their own careers can help to reduce the resistance to change by encouraging people to examine what work they could do in the future. When backed up by meaningful check-ins, the employee experience is better and more aligned to a changing workplace.

As experienced leaders and HR professionals, you will all be aware that change is a personal event and everyone will react differently to it. My advice to you is to be aware of those people who have not been required to undergo change and consider carefully how change is approached for these staff groups. The fear of change is a personal fear but it is often caused by the organisations that insulate people from change and allow them to sit in one role for many years. If this is a necessary part of your business model then look at the questions above again to determine how you will better deliver change in future.

Please contact me if you wish to discuss this further or comment below.

#hr #fearofchange #futureofwork #peoplefirst

Andy Davies