Change coach Inge van Kooten-Satter knows all about that. She wrote the book ' People make or break a change': how to strengthen the power of change in your organization ' (affiliate). She immediately helps the reader out of the dream:
There is no step-by-step plan for change and I don't know of any successful change that has taken place according to a pre-planned step-by-step plan.
Unknown territory
The uncertainty and complexity that come with major changes cannot be captured in a standard scenario. After all, change takes place in unfamiliar territory. Something you did no longer works or needs to be improved. To take it to the next level, you enter areas that you did not go to until recently.
No hold? Stress!
During a change process, we leave our hold of familiar processes and ingrained habits. This loss of control has a psychological impact on people, scientists have determined. This can certainly cause tension and stress in a work situation.
The primal power of change
So Van Kooten-Satter offers a number of handles, insights and examples that give change agents hope and self-confidence. The author establishes that every person has 'change power' within them. Regardless of age, intelligence or experience. We have two instincts that help us with that: survival instinct and curiosity.
Play and discover
Developmental psychology teaches us what people need to confidently embrace change. We want an environment in which we feel safe and secure enough to play and discover. We also want free access to resources and to determine our own direction. These three preconditions ensure that we dare, can and want to do things.
Tackling insecurity
Safety and trust are often hard to find at the start of a change process. Especially when a group of external consultants suddenly enter a department, colleagues who have been working there for years can sometimes become suspicious. "Oh, aren't we good enough to solve this ourselves?" Sometimes a 'dream situation' is outlined as netherlands telegram data the end goal, which feels like an unachievable mission to many. Change processes are also regularly (directly or indirectly) linked to cutbacks or reorganisations, which does not exactly increase trust among employees.
Also read: Successful change: a soft approach for hard results
Daring-oriented communication
An important way to reduce this discomfort is hidden in communication. If there is insecurity or a lack of trust in a department, then that situation deserves full attention. You make the difference in the way you speak as a colleague, manager or change coach. Van Kooten-Satter quotes scientist Amy Edmonson here. She gives three tips to promote 'daring':
Frame the work as a learning challenge, not a performance challenge.
Admit your own imperfection: you fail too.
Be curious and ask lots of questions.
From performing to learning
This approach initiates different conversations. By placing less emphasis on performance, the change process does not immediately feel like a cold reckoning for years of hard work. 'We can still learn a lot' simply sounds less confrontational than 'It will all have to be considerably better.
