Managing the Constant Change in the Workplace

“The only constant in life is change.”

You may have heard of this famous adage by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus before. For the time, it must have been a great revelation, but for us in the present, living our day-to-day lives has proven it to be an undeniable universal truth.

We are constantly barraged by change, whether that be at home or at work or anywhere else you could think of. Change is what keeps us moving forward. However, change is often met with fear and aversion, and nowhere is that truer than it is in the workplace.

Why is that? This could be for a number of reasons such as a lack of trust, a feeling of confusion, or a sense of losing control. Whatever it may be, that fear is going to hold your organisation back from making any progress unless you take steps to remove it.

Being open to change is critical to an organisation’s long-term survival. If you do not change with your environment, it will leave you behind without a second thought. It may not be comfortable for your employees at first, but if you manage the implementation of any change well, they may wonder why they ever feared change in the first place.

How to Easily and Effectively Manage Change

Great leadership is needed in many areas for a healthy work environment but managing change will truly test your capabilities as a leader.

As the team leader, you must first realise that managing change is just as important as implementing it. A slip-up on your part could make the difference between a team that is committed to taking the organisation to the next level and a team that is just going through the motions.

Once you are committed to the changes that you want to bring to the workplace, it is time to implement them in a way that helps your team to make them without all the conflict and stress. So, here are just a few tips that you can use so that you easily and effectively manage change in your workplace.

Plan Out and Define the Changes

The first thing you have to do is carefully plan out and define what it is exactly that you want to change in the workplace. Be crystal clear on what these changes are, why you are implementing them, and how it will affect the overall structure of the workflow for everyone.

But before you go about spouting change to your team, make sure that you are able to define what these changes are to yourself. You cannot start implementing change without fully understanding why it is that you are making them, and how you are going to do it, otherwise it is a case of the blind leading the blind.

Just like in teaching something that you are supposedly an expert in: If you are not able to explain it for yourself, how are you supposed to explain it to others?

Provide Constant Communication with Your Team 

As change gradually takes hold of your organisation, your team will naturally have plenty of questions and concerns that were not covered in the planning stages. When this happens, make sure that you listen to them and provide answers and constant reassurance.

All your people have different ways of navigating change and they are not all like you. With this in mind, you must communicate in their change language and not yours. Some people are ready to charge ahead whilst others change step-by-step. Make sure everyone knows why the change is important to them as an individual, as well as a team and organisation.

As stated before, people often fear change because they are afraid to venture out into places unfamiliar to them. What you can do with great communication is to use it as a tool to enlighten them of the benefits of the change, therefore eliminating that fear.

Pace Out the Implementation of Change 

You do not want your team to experience culture shock once you start implementing change. No matter how big or small that change is, it will influence your employees and how they go about their work. So, a sudden shift in that dynamic can drastically affect progress.

Pacing out the changes will help your team integrate it in their own way and at their own time. This will help them to get used to the new processes and to become more accepting of further changes that you may want to implement. By doing this, you will have implemented all the changes that you wanted without any major resistance from your team.

Conclusion

Change is a constant inevitable. It is just another process that we all have to go through. That is why as a leader of change, you must be ready to take on any potential roadblocks that might get in the way. A leader that does not know how adapt to change will have a harder time moving the organisation forward.

As the legendary Albert Einstein once said:

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”

So, what are the changes that you want to implement in your workplace? How will you manage those changes? What do you need to develop as a leader so that you can be more effective?

We Are Here to Help

At People Builders, we have a team of expert trainers and coaches who can help you in building trust with your team. Contact us today for a quick chat to see how we can partner with you to train and coach you and your team.

If you are interested in becoming certified to be a trainer and coach in Social and Emotional Intelligence, Applied Neuroscience, or Extended DISC, go to our People Builders Institute website.