Think about some of the recent change efforts in your organization. Did everyone react the same way to each change? If not, what kinds of reactions did you notice? Change would be so much easier to manage if everyone responded identically — particularly if that identical response entailed enthusiastically accepting and supporting the change. But astute change managers anticipate a range of responses and appreciate the factors that account for them. Here are a few such factors.

Personality is one of the most obvious factors. We each have a certain level of comfort — or discomfort — with replacing what’s familiar, predictable, and safe with that which is new, unfamiliar, uncertain, confusing, or potentially risky.

So when a company mandates the use of new tools, modifies key processes, or implements a reorganization, the people who are affected by the change adjust at different rates and display different reactions as they do so. Some people may complain (a little or a lot), some may whimper and whine, some may quit, some may welcome the change, and some may simply go along without a peep. All these reactions are normal responses to change.

I liked my claustrophobic cubicle!

Despite the influence of personality, the reaction to any given change is at least partly situational. Someone who is generally averse to change may eagerly adopt a particular change because it’s especially appealing or offers significant benefits. Conversely, someone who generally enjoys change may protest a given change if it poses a real or imagined impediment or threat.

So, for example, how people react to a change in location — whether it’s to another city or the other side of the floor — may have more to do with the specifics of the new location than the person’s attitude towards change. And even those most open to technological change may bawk at a major upgrade that coincides with other particularly pressing priorities. As I describe in my book, Changing How You Manage and Communicate Change, the timing of a change relative to other changes people are coping with strongly influences how they respond to it.

Been there, done that

Another relevant factor is familiarity with the nature of a particular change. I know people who have been through multiple mergers who now view them as “here we go again” rather than as the shock they experienced with the first merger. Struggling through previous changes has prepared them to cope more effectively with future changes.

And let’s not forget the influence of work and life experiences. I once facilitated a meeting of an IT group that, due to cutbacks, was being pounded by a vast increase in workload. As they vented about their situation, I noticed that one fellow in the group seemed relaxed and unruffled. Afterwards, I privately asked him what accounted for his apparent comfort despite this burgeoning workload. “Oh, this is nothing,” he told me. “I’ve only been here a few months. In my last job, our workload was much bigger than it is here. These people don’t realize how easy they have it.”

What kinds of reactions to change have you noticed in your own organization? Will you be prepared for a range of reactions in the next change effort that you lead?

Naomi Karten
+1-781-986-8148 (Boston area)
Seminars, Presentations and Consulting to Help Organizations
Improve Customer Satisfaction, Manage Change and Strengthen Teamwork

My latest book, to be released April '09
Changing How You Manage and Communicate Change
http://www.itgovernanceusa.com/product/1887.aspx