Are you already experiencing change fatigue?
Often we read about the apparent 'fact' that change needs to be managed (change management), rather then seeing it as a process of involvement, engagement and continues learning by feeding forward (not just feeding back) what has been done well and even more importantly, what struggles arrived and how team members collaboratively and successfully pushed through the incremental plateaus. Change is a process that requires facilitation (change facilitation), rather than solely focusing on the change management side of transformation.
Before we talk about change fatigue, it’s important to understand the process of change. Putting labels on it can (sometimes) make it easier to discuss the component parts. Harvard Business School professor David A. Garvin describes change as: "decision, planning, roll out, and reward, where progress has been made and people are recognized for their hard work and accomplishments." Important to mention here is probably that recognition isn't as universally straight forward as one might think - tag word intrinsic/extrinsic motivation.
Garvin says that when things don’t go well, it’s often because of flaws in the process or communication, especially in organizations where change will not be rolled out at the same pace or intensity. Those failures, coupled with a feeling of change being forced up on them, can lead to employees’ frustration. And when that process is repeated several times in short succession, it generates what’s known as change fatigue.
Kotter International reports that a recent Goldman Sachs response to criticism resulted in a sixty-three-page report. In it, there are nearly forty initiatives to be rolled out in less than two years. Sounds familiar?
Change is the only constant
As much as the statement above has its validity, it certainly seems worth pointing out that we can see constant change as a thread as much as we might see it as an opportunity. Rather simplistically elaborating on the notion of fixed versus a growth mindset. In essence evolution testing your ideas against resistance.
Two Causes of Change Fatigue
Ken Perlman, an engagement leader at Kotter International, elaborates on the two prongs of change fatigue.
First, employees are keenly aware of three things: the organization rarely reaches its stated goals for change; the changes being implemented generally just mean additional work for them; and inevitably, there will be a new push for change just around the corner, regardless of how well this current change sticks—or doesn’t.
Second, an organization’s method for enacting change is often deeply flawed, hindering the success of change initiatives before they’re even rolled out. These flaws include:
Emphasizing the need for urgent change in response to a perceived crisis to the degree that people are so focused on the danger they can’t see anything else. This happened with Nokia’s “burning platform” memo that opened with a story about how an oil rig worker chose to jump into the sea in the face of a catastrophic fire, which really just panicked everyone and sowed chaos.
Underestimating the time and energy required for successful organizational change in the face of external factors. As an analogy, remember how much trouble they had trying to turn the Titanic away from an iceberg? Real changes take time and lots of steam.
Reassigning the best and brightest to form a team dedicated to enacting change, from planning to implementation. This really just isolates the best employees, cultivates a lag between assembling a team and any roll-out of their work, and can cause duplication of work as more teams are assembled to address new changes.
By better understanding the causes of change fatigue, managers and leaders can be better prepared to mitigate it.
Spend a little time looking back at the last big change your organization implemented. Critique the process, implementation, and results. Can you identify the areas of weakness that might have led to change fatigue among your team members or your company?