The pains of change

Nothing will test the metal of a corporate leader more than the management of change. While making changes to accommodate new goals or better ways of doing business is essential to the long term survival of any company, the turbulence and stresses caused by change related issues can threaten your (an executive’s) professional survival.

The ability to weather the storms that accompany the winds of change may hinge on your ability to prepare other stakeholders, like board members and even customers for a rough and tumble voyage. The time for the board’s education is not at the height of the storm but in the earliest stages of planning the passage form the old ways to the new. They will need to understand that resistance to change is normal and follows predictable patterns. They should also know that because they are predictable they are manageable.

While resistance to change isn’t always rational, it is logical. Consider the fact that over the years most of your company’s employees have been perfecting the art and science of doing their various jobs. From their first days at work they have been involved in a process of trial and error in custom tailoring their work habits to meet both their own and the company’s needs. At some point they became comfortable with the result. Work became predictable, reasonably productive and relatively safe from uncertainty. Each “owned” his or her own working formula for what they saw as success.

If you asked them what they are most proud of they would refer to the successes of the past. You might see the need to make changes that you hope will make the company even more productive. If so, your vision of the future and the employees’ comfort with the past will inevitably collide. The employees believe they know what works. From their perspectives they’ve proven that every day, and they won’t be able to imagine that anyone would be so “foolish” as to throw it all away. The result will be that you and the risks of new uncertainties will become the enemy.

We say “will be” instead of “may be” because resistance to change is almost completely predictable. Whether the you are new to the company and hired to implement change or a long term employee who has risen through the ranks, it will be clear to almost all of your people that somehow, despite your experience or expertise you “doesn’t understand” or “haven’t done your homework”. As they persist in explaining the reasons that the changes being proposing are unnecessary or won’t work, some will come to believe that you and the entire executive corps “aren’t listening.” After all, they’ve told you not once, but many times of dangers they don’t seem to recognize.

Eventually some will be convinced that you “don’t trust” them. From their point of view they have given you their best advice, and your actions, in particular your failure to adopt their stance will be interpreted to mean that you no longer value their opinions. We put all these words in quotes; “don’t understand, aren’t listening or don’t trust” because if we were able to hear their inner thoughts or their honest expressions of concern to fellow workers, you would hear them all.

In the early stages of your discussions of impending changes you and quite possibly the board will begin to hear the first warnings of multiple resignations. If the people who are rumored to be leaving are of significant rank or status their dissatisfaction will be interpreted as the strongest possible evidence of the error of your ways. To many, the sky will be falling, the company at the very edge of disintegration.

For a new manager or leader this is a time of substantial danger and frustration. The chances are that you are listening, that you do understand and that you do trust them. The fact is that you disagree with them. The danger is that the fear of change is so strong in some people that they will, against their own best interests, begin to marshal forces of resistance. They may actively recruit co-workers and even board members. The focus of their efforts will not be on issues specifically related to change but on you as the change agent. Those who are most vocal in their resistance will be vigilantly poised to inspect and interpret your every action as evidence that you don’t know what you’re doing or that your “style” is unsuitable to the setting or that his actions dishonor tradition and a respectable past.

This is a critical time and a potential turning point. If your board is unfamiliar with the typical stages of resistance to change they may be easily subject to recruitment. The fears of the company employees with whom they confer may seem justified. These are, after all, good, honest and trusted employees. The actual resignation of any one of them may send shockwaves throughout the organization. They may begin to ask their fellow board members whether in fact they are in dangerous, perhaps too dangerous waters.

They may not know that with their support and careful and conscientious management of communication, trust and other change related issues, there will be pain but that the company can move ahead and become what it needs to be. They may not recognize that turning back can be the mistake that turns into a long term disaster.

Forewarned of an impending storm, they may not be so surprised or alarmed at its intensity nor too afraid to allow you to carry on with your duties as master of the ship.

Tom Aranow is a former CEO who now consults with CEOs and other executives as a Senior Advisor with Harrington Daniels Advisors, LLC. He may be reached at Tom@hdadvisors.com.