Leading After a RIF: 7 Ways To Ease The Challenge of A Reduction In Force

"When the storm rips you to pieces, you get to decide how to put yourself back together again." - Bryant H. McGill.

If you have just led your organization or your team through a reduction in force (RIF),? you are probably feeling like you deserve a medal and a massage.? RIFs can be an extremely traumatic and debilitating experience for a team. But they can also be a tremendous opportunity to align the company on what really matters and focus your attention on remaining team members.?

A RIF can trigger a downward spiral that looks something like this -? your best performers take the cue of a reduction in headcount to go look around for other employment options.? Then your remaining team members become overburdened, burnt out, checked out, and dropping important work.? Employees who are too scared or lack other prospects start looking out for themselves and stop speaking up. Existing customers notice a drop in service or quality; they start looking for other vendors.?

A RIF can also trigger an upward spiral, one where the whole team leans in. Collectively the organization cuts low value work and drives for innovation, automation, and efficiency.? Leaders take care of their team and their team takes care of existing customers - like they matter. The resulting organization is leaner, more customer focused and more fun.

Investing in culture can make the difference between the upward and the downward spiral. What does it look like to invest in culture?? Let’s explore 7 key areas worth investing time and attention into.? These could be once-per-week lunchtime conversations or something more formal like hiring an outside consultant. Either way, investing in your culture is likened to brushing your teeth - gentle constant attention is more effective than going in hard every once in a while.?

Building Authentic Connection?

People are going to talk. If you intentionally create forums where people can have their concerns heard, you can ensure that important concerns are coming to the forefront and the messages are being managed.? People mostly want to be heard.? Concerns often dissipate once they are addressed, because the concern is about something that might happen or has happened in the past.? If the only place people have to be heard is on backchannels, it is easy for rumors and negative narratives to take hold and spread. Give people a place where they can voice their concerns and be heard by their leaders and peers.?

Repair Psychological Safety

Psychological Safety is present when people feel safe to be themselves. On a team is means members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of one another. Dr. Timothy Clark, founder and CEO of LeaderFactor, identified four aspects of psychological safety:?

1. Inclusion Safety
2. Learner Safety
3. Contributor Safety
4. Challenger Safety

Inclusion Safety is tied to our very basic physiological needs. We want to know we are not going to get kicked out of the tribe or lose our job. RIFs damage employees’ basic needs for inclusion safety.? There are a lot of things you can do to repair inclusion safety.?

• Clarify why cuts were made
• Be transparent about how decisions were made
• Be honest about the potential for future reductions
• Communicate how those let go are being supported

In order to learn, you have to try something new. It has to be okay to ask questions, experiment, make mistakes and even seem foolish. Building a culture of mistakes is not about glorifying failure. In fact, failure sucks. Nobody likes to fail. But you can create an environment of Learner Safety where it is safe to take risks. After a RIF, people can become so cautious and contracted that it restricts learning, creativity, and appropriate risk taking.? Find small ways to encourage a culture of learning - like? a homegrown lunch-and-learn? or a small experiment.? Make sure people do not retreat to safe ground.

People will only bring their best work to the table if it feels safe to do so, if they have Contributor Safety. We feel self esteem and valued when our contribution has been appreciated and acknowledged. If people think their role is in danger of elimination, they will withhold their contributions. This is why it's so important to do RIFs well, once, and quickly.?

Challenger Safety is required to challenge ideas and overcome the pressure to conform. At this point, your basic needs are met, you are part of the tribe, and have enough social connection and social standing that you are willing and allowed to bring in suggestions on how to improve the system (instead of conforming to it). This is where innovation happens.?

RIF events are great opportunities to deal with things that were not working. An event or challenge that leverages the disruption to collect feedback about what was not working and what could be done to improve effectiveness and efficiency will rebuild challenger safety. Just be sure you are prepared to evaluate and implement proposals.?

Clarity Expectations and Roles

RIFs generally result in changes to roles and even processes or offerings. Take the time to create clarity about new roles, responsibilities and offerings. This is a good time to look at the real value you create for clients and consider simplifying your offering.?

If decision making and processes are being redone, consider if autonomy and ownership can be increased or decentralized. You can even take this moment to flatten your hierarchy.?

Increase the Fidelity of Agreements?

People want to fulfill their agreements.? As roles are being redesigned and people are moving up into new responsibilities, ensure that they are not over-committing. Here are a few suggestions.?

• Encourage clarification of timeline and deliverables.?
• Make it possible for people to choose into new roles rather than just be reassigned.?
• Clarify how agreements are made and lean into weekly project retrospectives to catch when projects or deliverables are delayed.?
• Take the time to get curious about what is in the way. This is not the time to punish over-burdened employees. It is a good idea to look at where you have bottlenecks and dropped balls.??

Model a Culture of Feedback and Learning?

There is no better time to lean into learning.? As a leader, take the time to get?

feedback from team members who are leaving or being reassigned to new managers.

When reforming new teams, take the moment to create a clear vision and collect lessons about how the team can work best together. Retrospectives with your team are a great way to learn. Find out what was working well and what was not working. What do you want to do differently?? Make regular retrospectives your new normal.?

Care for Your Team

Concern yourself with how to make it easier for your team members to do their job.? RIFs can result in a great deal of burden on remaining employees.? If small perks or changes make it easier to do their job, then make it happen. Find ways to acknowledge and support your remaining team members. An empty thank you will go unnoticed, but a few thoughtful words of real recognition will go a long way.?

Lean Into Purpose?

Reaffirm the purpose of the organization and the team.? As a leader, let your team members see both your sense of purpose and your struggle. RIFs are hard. As leaders, we have to be more committed to the overall success of the organization and it’s people. Sometimes that means making very hard decisions. Reinforce the purpose and how the RIF serves long term health of the organization.?

Many organizations are trimming down.? As a caring dedicated leader, you face the challenge of letting people go. But losing additional talent because they have lost confidence, are overburdened, or unappreciated can be extremely expensive.? Be proactive and invest in your culture and the long term health of your organization.?

Ready to continue the conversation? We are customizing our culture training for organizations who have just gone through a RIF. We would love to speak with you about your experience. Contact us at [email protected].