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John W. Moran: CareGroup, Boston, MA, USA
Baird K. Brightman: Worklife Strategies, Sudbury, MA, USA
"One should expect resistance with any great change. It shakes the very foundation of privilege (Lucretia Mott)." "Never give up. Never, never, never, never give up (Winston Churchill)."
Change management is the process of continually renewing an organization's direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers. Mastering strategies for managing change is more important today since the rate of change is greater than at any time in history. The marketplace is changing overnight. Organizational alliances and structures are shifting rapidly. Everything in the organization is open to scrutiny. Basic operating assumptions are questioned. Traditions are challenged. The risk of failure is greater than ever before and the tension within the workforce is great and needs constant attention.
Change management is not about managing change!
The purpose of this article is to change your thinking about managing change, to shift your focus from change to the people facing change. Managing change is about managing people, which is fortunately something we know a great deal about (though we do not always apply what we know!). Managing change draws on our knowledge of human motivation, groups and leadership.
When thinking about managing people who are facing change, it is well to remember that change strikes at the heart of the three most powerful drivers of work behavior:
(1) purpose;
(2) identity; and
(3) mastery.
Change management is really about managing (either well or poorly) the impact of some particular environmental and/or organizational change on these core activators of workplace performance.
Purpose
People are goal-oriented. We are "pulled" along by our sense of purpose, desire, value. To the degree that change violates a person's sense of purpose, they will "resist" that change. If change is aligned with a person's sense of purpose, they will engage in a positive fashion. When considering change in your organization, ask yourself "Why do people come here to work each day? Will this change violate or conform to that purpose(s)?" Develop a "purpose map" of your workforce; this will allow you to conduct an assessment of your employees' major reasons for showing up every day and doing their best work. Open up a...