From Change to Changed ~ 3 Stages of Transformation

Jeffrey S. Deckman, 

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11.28.12 

We all change all day, every day and so does everyone and everything else. Yet the mere thought of “Change” causes more disruption, fear and paralysis in people, and organizations, than almost anything I can think of, except perhaps death and public speaking. So, this article is going to focus on the subject of Change and what we can do to help our organizations, and the people in them, to go from fearing Change to enveloping it and becoming Changed or “Transformed”.

I am not going to talk about Change from the standpoint of how disruptive it can be. Instead I want to explore the subject and explain some of the dynamics that get activated when people are faced with changes to their environment. In addition, I will give some insights into how to assist people to productively move through Change.

First things First

I will start out by arguing against the myth that people fear change. Believing that people naturally fear change is not only a limiting presumption but it is simply not true.  And I can prove it.

If you decided to buy a new car today would the thought of changing your old car for a new car scare you? I think not. What if you just found out that you won the lottery?  Would the prospect of your life changing in such a way strike terror in you? Or, what about the change that comes from getting a sought after promotion or from being accepted at the college of your choice?

In each of these situations would your initial and primary response be one of  fear or excitement?

The point is that we don’t fear change. What we fear is that which we perceive will result in a decrease in stability or security. We also fear that which we don’t understand. At the core of all of this is the fact that we fear anything which threatens our sense of control.

On the other hand if a change occurs that we either quickly understand; feel as though we can control or is something we feel will result in our becoming better off, we greet that change with excitement and anticipation.

It then stands to reason that if you want to minimize the impact a change will have on your organization you must focus upon helping people to understand the reasons for the change as well as the probable impact, positive or negative, the change may have on them.

           

The Importance of Communication

With that being understood it is easy to see that effective Communication is a major component that determines how quickly people and organizations adapt to change. But it is important to remember that communication does not mean simply talking. Studies have shown that only 7% of our communication comes from the words we speak. Another 35% is in the tone we use and the remaining 57% is via body language. There is a lot which impacts how we communicate.

Effective communication is also not just communicating your side of the story, it is bi-directional. The way to achieve true communication is best described by Steven Covey, who is perhaps the world’s foremost expert on the subject. He tells us to “First seek to understand and then seek to be understood.”

What is required to understand someone is to first create a safe zone for them to express themselves and encourage them to do so. Understand that their concerns are valid to them, allow them to express these concerns and then LISTEN!

By the way, simply being quiet while the other person is talking is not listening. To really listen requires that you engage them in a dialogue to insure that you understand them. (This is called Active Listening) Even if you do not share their concerns seek to understand them as it is in that understanding which you will find the keys as to how to best address their concerns.

The Importance of Trust

If you are going to attempt to effectively communicate you must first understand that there is no Communication without Trust. If you are talking to someone and either of you don’t trust the other there is no effective communication taking place. There is only positioning and limited honesty. “Seeking to understand” quickly establishes that you care about the other person and that builds trust. As trust grows so too grows the level and quality of your communication. They are directly linked together.

Another way to build trust is by being tactful and respectful in your communications. If you are careful with your words and are considerate you will find that people will react much in the same way back to you.

However, never underestimate another person’s ability to detect when, and if, you are being disingenuous. We all have a sixth sense about that and while you may be saying all the right words if you aren’t being truthful either your tone or your body language will betray you.

As you can see gaining someone’s trust is complex. In fact I would argue that it is so complex that you shouldn’t even attempt it if you aren’t completely serious about earning it.

The 3 Stages that lead from “Change to Changed”

So far we have been setting the stage for change to occur. This next part will briefly describe the 3 stages that people, and organizations, go through as they evolve from being unsettled about a change to settling into it.

The 3 stages of this evolution are Change, Transition and Transformation.

Change:

This first step can be defined both as a situational phenomenon that may sometimes be temporary as well as what the person feels hey are being called upon to do; for instance, when a situation changes people are then called upon to change.

Situational change refers to any number of “newness” elements ranging from a departmental shift to the appointment of a new boss. Changing events are seen as external to us and are reflective of a shift in our environment.  Yet changes in people are always internal first and they challenge us to shift our consciousness if we are to adapt.

Change is the end result of an event or an intervention. People’s typical initial response to change is reactive, sporadic and unpredictable. It is a time of uncertainty of conditions and a period of unpredictability in people.

Transition:

This next step refers to people’s evolving response to Change. It refers to the psychological adaptation and early acceptance to a changed environment. This process pertains to the shifting “hearts and minds of employees. It is in this mental state of Transition where employees are deciding to “let go” of old ways and begin embracing a new way.

Since this process occurs on an individual level (implicitly also at each individual’s pace), it is arguably the single most unpredictable element in the management of change to transformation. It is at this critical point where people either “snap back to grid” and retain their original mindset or they begin to adapt to the existing conditions and evolve into the new environment. So care must be taken as you seek to assist them through this stage as it is in this area where it is determined who moves forward and who falls back.

Transformation:

This point marks the final stage in the Change process. Transformation is when acceptance, adaptation, assimilation and a settled adjustment occurs within the people as well as in the organization. This is when the mindset of the people is in alignment with the new conditions existing around the organization. The people and the organization have evolved to adapt to the same set of conditions and are once again working in synergy to move forward.

What was once considered Change is now considered the “norm”.

Then things settle down once again…..until the next round. And the system repeats itself.

Conclusion:

The thing to remember about the 3 Stages of Change is that in the first phase you and your employees feel disoriented and perhaps fearful. You must then establish Trust in order to establish effective Communications.

The level of Trust and Communication that you establish then becomes the single largest factor in determining how many, and who, make it through the precarious Transition stage.

Those who make it through that stage will be the ones who have not only Transformed themselves but who have also identified themselves as the ones who can be depended upon to help transform your organization into one that is adaptive, sustainable and very resilient.

And that is a powerful formula for success.

Jeffrey Deckman is the founder of Capability Accelerators and the creator of the Bigger Know Principles of Leadership. (www.TheBiggerKnow.com). He is an expert at building agile and resilient leadership teams and cultures that increase morale, productivity and profitability. He can be reached at JDeckman@CapabilityAccelerators.com

Management Has a Right to a Peaceful Workplace Too! 

Jeffrey S Deckman, Founder Capability Accelerators 

The focus of my practice is to help build skillful and resilient leadership teams at the supervisor, manager and executive levels. This is very rewarding in that a high percentage of people at these levels are very conscientious, have a solid work ethic and are life long learners. They are also good at their jobs and care greatly about the company and their coworkers; which is often why they were promoted in the first place. But these people face a unique set of stresses that non-management people never experience. 

What I am talking about is something that is considered taboo and even politically incorrect, certainly by union leadership and others who spread the self-serving myth that workers have to be protected from management. The premise being that people who work their way up from “worker to management” somehow magically become power hungry and a threat to those they supervise. 

Well, sometimes the opposite it true. Sometimes it is the supervisor or manager who has to be protected from a rogue worker who is intent on being as disruptive as possible, for whatever reason. 

While this may be a foreign concept to those who have never been in management I guarantee anyone who has management experience is nodding their head in agreement at this very moment. They can relate. 


The Gallup organization released a study a while back that identified three classifications of employees: Highly Engaged, Moderately Engaged and Actively Disengaged. In the typical company 29% of the people are highly engaged; 55% are Moderately Engaged and 16% are “Actively Disengaged.” 

 It is those who make up the 16% that this article is focused upon. Gallup describes these people as ones who are actively working against the organization. These are people who, for whatever reason, have chosen to be disruptive to management and their own colleagues. They often do this by avoiding work, challenging anything they don’t approve of, chronically complaining and stirring up co-workers who were otherwise content. The amount of stress and distress these people cause is significant, especially to their managers. 

And while I have seen my share of bad management styles, most are a result of a lack of training in the human and group dynamics that one must understand in order to effectively engage and lead people around them. However, most of the bad employee antics I have seen are not a result of someone not understanding how to be a good employee. 

The negative impact these people have is often magnified by the manager initially trying to avoid directly confronting the worker so as not to be considered a “hard-ass” or over-reactive. But once the manager does decides to act, the process they must follow is laborious; often taking weeks and months to document EVERYTHING through a series of verbal and written warnings. This adds significantly to the manager’s workload and stress. It also steals precious time which must be made up by their working late to get their regular jobs done. 

Meanwhile the rogue employee is free to engage in multiple rounds of guerrilla warfare using tactics that range from being moody, acting passive/aggressively and even “behaving” for a while. The “temporarily behaving” tactic can be very effective for them. It often results in their manager stopping the disciplinary process or even resetting the discipline clock in an act of good faith that often comes back to haunt them. 

All of these tactics are purposeful and masterful acts of manipulation of a good hearted person working within a well intentioned system designed to protect workers from the exact type of abuse and anxieties the miscreant is purposefully inflicting upon others.

Understanding the Mindset:
So how does one handle one who is not only determined to be disruptive, but who is also clever enough to know the restrictions placed on management? 

Well, you have to out think them. But to out think them you must first understand how they think. 

At the expense of oversimplifying things constantly disgruntled people fit into two basic categories:

   1. Those who feel victimized, are emotionally immature, and who lack the communication skills and/or the self confidence to address situations maturely. They may also openly pout and shut down. They see themselves as Eeyore. These people can be called passive aggressors. 

   2. Those who feel victimized, are emotionally immature, are angry and aggressive, who bend truth and situations to justify their actions and who openly challenge anyone who won’t give them what they think they should have. They see themselves as a heroic Joan of Arc fighting against evil oppressors. These people can be called active aggressors. 

They are both primarily self-centered and think the world should bend to them. When it doesn’t they make those above, around and below them pay. Because of their self centered view of life they also tend to become self-righteous which serves to allow them to justify any actions they take while keeping them conveniently able to play the role of victim. 

However one of the most underhanded, but effective, traits they share is that they are manipulators of people, situations and of the truth. This often catches their managers by surprise because most people, yes even management, are honest, open and seek to move peacefully through life without creating unnecessary dramas or hurting people. 

Countering Tactics – Truth, Transparency, Accountability:
The first thing I do when I have identified one of these folks is that I prepare myself to encounter their manipulative and emotional based tactics. Those are two favorite tools the “Eddie Haskill’s” use to disrupt things, keep you off balance and to secure their advantage. If you understand their game and steel yourself to resist their pull you have taken the first step in turning the advantage to your side. 

I then “rise up” to a high level of professionalism and work hard to stay there. Emotion and deception is their weapon. Therefore, intellect and honesty is my counter. At the same time discipline is their weakness. This means that if I make discipline my strength I begin to gain build even more momentum. 

I then slow….every….thing….down and I seek to clearly understand what is going on. Fast-talking and working to confuse is another tool of theirs. So I remove it from them by asking questions designed to help me methodically attempt to put their puzzle pieces together. I calmly ask for clarity on anything I don’t understand. One of my most effective phrases is: “Help me understand that better.” This allows me to hear them out if they are being honest or flush them out if they are being manipulative.

Manipulators hate being made to make their stories, their viewpoints or their thinking make sense because they have carefully created story lines that make them appear perfectly innocent or well intentioned. Or sometimes they just throw out as much BS as they can to confuse you or to justify their actions. This results in them often not even remembering parts of what they said. 

So when you slow them down, they get tangled in the loose ends of their stories and the advantage further shifts in your direction. This is because the only thing manipulators dislike more than not getting their own way is being caught in their act. 

Since lies are the manipulator’s friends that means that truth is their enemy. So seek truth. Use it. Stand for it. Because the light of truth has the same affect on the manipulator as the light of day has on the vampire. It repels and weakens them both. 

In time, not only will they learn that lying to you is going to be a painful experience for them but they will also learn they can’t manipulate you and in that you begin to define that your culture is one of honesty. In doing so you are making a clear statement to them and others that neither lying or liars are accepted or acceptable. Hopefully, they respond positively to your stand for integrity and understand that what you are actually doing is working to help them to save their jobs by teaching them which behaviors will get them terminated. 

As you can imagine there is always more to learning how to become impervious to these workplace “vampires” who suck the energy, time and profits out of those very companies that fund their livelihood. But hopefully this information will give you a fighting chance against them. 

It sure works for me. 

Jeffrey Deckman is the founder of Capability Accelerators and the creator of the Bigger Know Principles of Leadership. (www.TheBiggerKnow.com). He is an expert at building agile and resilient leadership teams and cultures that increase morale, productivity and profitability. He can be reached at JDeckman@CapabilityAccelerators.com