Is Your Organisation Change Resistant or Change Ready?

Our brain is designed for sustainability. It is primed to conserve energy. It is driven by a desire to maintain a state of neurobiological balance. And it is biased to stay within the confines of what’s familiar.?

The result of this??

Some believe in an in-built resistance to change.?

Organisational change can be a difficult but necessary process for businesses to go through. It can be unsettling for employees, with uncertainty and stress often the order of the day when it comes to the change process. Change is inevitable in all organisations, bringing both opportunities and risks. This means having the processes and tools in place to make sure change readiness is essential.

With the right guidance, organisational change can be made into an opportunity, and a positive experience for all involved.?

So how can this happen, and how do you know whether your organisation is change resistant, or change-ready?

Here at Synaptic Potential, we offer a Change Readiness Masterclass, called ‘Change ReadinessNQ’. ChangeReadinessNQ is the capacity of your organisation - and in particular the employees working within your organisation - to intelligently anticipate, prepare for, manage and respond to change, proactively cultivating the resulting opportunities and mitigating potential negative impacts.? Contact [email protected] for more information

Identifying Resistance

Resistance to change can arise for a number of reasons. But the number one culprit is fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the uncertain. Fear of the ambiguous. Fear causes your clients to stop in their tracks and causes them to avoid rather than approach. It causes them to play safe. This is appropriate if they are trying to protect themselves against harm, but less so if it stops them from embracing change and thriving on the new opportunities on offer.?

So firstly, target the fear. Change is associated with a lot of uncertainty. Many yet unanswered questions. Organisations built on transparency are often more successful at facilitating change because they remove uncertainty and ambiguity, reducing fear. Encourage questions at every stage and try to be as open and communicative as you can at every stage.

Becoming Change Ready

Here’s how you can help your people become more change ready:

• Encourage Curiosity: Curiosity is a great way to build openness to change.? Being curious means coming face to face with novelty regularly in their daily life, such as putting themselves in new situations and having new experiences... By regularly practising curiosity your staff will become more comfortable with these challenging feelings, boosting their coping potential under uncertainty.
• Promote Collaboration: It is essential to foster collaboration during the transition process. One of the most important things for companies to remember is to involve employees in the process. Having employees in the loop with open and ongoing communication can help to create a shared sense of ownership and understanding of the need for change, and help to foster an atmosphere of inclusiveness.?
• Listen to feedback: It's also essential for companies to ensure that employees feel heard and respected throughout the process and that their input is valued. Being responsive to feedback, and being open to ideas and considerations from employees, can go a long way towards making change a more positive experience.?

Finally, it's important to remember that change takes time. Organisations must be willing to take the time to build trust, foster relationships and work together with employees to create a successful transition into new ways of working. With the right mindset, organisational change can be made into an experience that inspires innovation and motivation, and leads to stronger working relationships, a more positive work culture, and greater success for everyone!

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