Stages of Change Management Session 6

Human Resource Management for Change
Navigating Change
SESSION
Prepared by: Morrette Allen 1
Learning Objectives
At the end of the session, you should be able to:
• Discuss the importance of managing the human side of change.

• Explain how to manage the human side of change.
• Explain the stages of change management – emotional stages
• Describe the Seven (7) dynamics of change put forth by Ken Blanchard
• Develop and implement strategies for managing change.
• Commit to implementing change processes within your organisation.
Personal transition
through change
Effectively Managing the Human Side of Change
Neglecting the human side of change
• All too often change management focuses only on the physical or technical sides of the
change.
• Whether it is the logistical planning when updating machinery or the careful consideration
of technicalities when changing the structure of an organisation, the physical details are
almost always carefully managed. This results in success on the surface.
• The change appears to have been well managed and put in place, but an imperative and
powerful part has been neglected: The human side of change.
• What about the people who operate the machines?

• The team members physically and emotionally affected by the adjusted structure?
• By imposing change on employees, unwarned and unmanaged, it is likely to cause,
discomfort or hostility
• It is this one mistake that can cause the long-term failure of an organization’s
improvement initiatives.
• The solution is to always consider change in two categories: technical and human.
• The technical side refers to any the logistical or physical aspects of the change.
• This is the area you are likely to already be accustomed to managing.
• The human side of change will include anything that affects the people in the organisation.
• This is the area in which you ensure that there is an understanding, acceptance, and
adaptability in your team.
• Both are equally important, and it is by understanding and implementing this balance that
you can achieve support and longevity for future change initiatives.
The proof is in the past projects
• To truly understand the importance of considering the human side of change as well as the
technical, it’s useful to recall an unsuccessful project from the organization’s past.
• Begin by listing the reasons that the change failed, and then divide them into the two
categories: technical and human.
• Look at the example on the next slides.
• It would be no surprised if the list of human-related issues is not greater than the list of
technical problems.
• It is likely to be riddled with individual issues that management was left to tackle one by
one.
• The issues could even accumulate to highlight one major problem that requires a large-
scale resolution, such as an entire change in the company culture.
• By not considering the forgone issues before implementing change, the initiative never
stood a chance.
• The effects of change on the emotions of employees demands and deserves attention.
• While technical issues can stall progress or cause the organization to go over budget, the
support of employees can be make or break.
• Management should invest time in not only preparing your employees for change but
motivate them to be the change makers.
• Management should welcome suggestions and open up lines of communication.

• View initial resistance and questions as new opportunities and fresh perspectives that
force a reevaluation of plans.
• By doing so management creates a positive environment of change, in which the
employees are supported, and they in turn support the change.
Management should engage in the following to ensure the human side of change is
considered:
Address the “human side” systematically. Use a formal approach for managing change,
beginning with the leadership team and then engaging key stakeholders and leaders.
 This should be developed early, and adapted often as change moves through the
organisation.
considered cont.:
Start at the top. Because change is inherently unsettling for people at all levels of an
organisation, when it is on the horizon, all eyes will turn to the CEO and the leadership
team for strength, support, and direction.
The leaders themselves must embrace the new approaches first, both to challenge and to
motivate the rest of the institution.
They must speak with one voice and model the desired behaviors.
considered cont.:
Involve every layer. As transformation programs progress from defining strategy and
setting targets to design and implementation, they affect different levels of the organisation.
Change efforts must include plans for identifying leaders throughout the company and
pushing responsibility for design and implementation down, so that change “cascades”
through the organisation.
At each layer of the organisation, the leaders who are identified and trained must be aligned
to the company’s vision, equipped to execute their specific mission, and motivated to make
change happen.
considered cont.:
Make the formal case. Individuals are inherently rational and will question to what
extent change is needed, whether the company is headed in the right direction, and
whether they want to commit personally to making change happen.
Individuals will look to the leadership for answers.
The articulation of a formal case for change and the creation of a written vision statement
are invaluable opportunities to create or compel leadership team alignment.
considered cont.:
Create ownership. Leaders of large change programs must overperform during the

transformation and be the zealots who create a critical mass among the work force in
favour of change.
This requires more than mere buy-in or passive agreement that the direction of change is
acceptable.
It demands ownership by leaders willing to accept responsibility for making change
happen in all the areas they influence or control.
considered cont.:
Ownership is often best created by involving people in identifying problems and crafting
solutions. It is reinforced by incentives and rewards.
These can be tangible (for example, financial compensation) or psychological (for
example, camaraderie and a sense of shared destiny).
considered cont.:
Communicate the message. Too often, change leaders make the mistake of believing that
others understand the issues, feel the need to change, and see the new direction as clearly
as they do.
The best change programs reinforce core messages through regular, timely advice that is
both inspirational and practicable.
Communications flow in from the bottom and out from the top and are targeted to provide
employees the right information at the right time and to solicit their input and feedback.
Often this will require over communication through multiple, redundant channels.
considered cont.:
 Assess the cultural landscape. Successful change programs pick up speed and intensity
as they cascade down, making it critically important that leaders understand and account
for culture and behaviours at each level of the organisation.
Companies often make the mistake of assessing culture either too late or not at all.
Thorough cultural diagnostics can assess organizational readiness to change, bring major
problems to the surface, identify conflicts, and define factors that can recognize and
influence sources of leadership and resistance.
considered cont.:
These diagnostics identify the core values, beliefs, behaviors, and perceptions that must be
considered for successful change to occur.
They serve as the common baseline for designing essential change elements, such as the
new corporate vision, and building the infrastructure and programs needed to drive
change.
considered cont.:
Address culture explicitly. Once the culture is understood, it should be addressed as

thoroughly as any other area in a change program.
Leaders should be explicit about the culture and underlying behaviors that will best
support the new way of doing business and find opportunities to model and reward those
behaviors.
This requires developing a baseline, defining an explicit end-state or desired culture, and
devising detailed plans to make the transition.
considered cont.:
Company culture is an amalgam of shared history, explicit values and beliefs, and
common attitudes and behaviors.
Change programs can involve creating a culture (in new companies or those built through
multiple acquisitions), combining cultures (in mergers or acquisitions of large companies),
or reinforcing cultures (in, say, long-established consumer goods or manufacturing
companies).
Understanding that all companies have a cultural center — the locus of thought, activity,
influence, or personal identification — is often an effective way to jump-start culture
change.
considered cont.:
Prepare for the unexpected. No change program goes completely according to plan.
People react in unexpected ways; areas of anticipated resistance fall away; and the
external environment shifts.
Effectively managing change requires continual reassessment of its impact and the
organization’s willingness and ability to adopt the next wave of transformation.
Fed by real data from the field and supported by information and solid decision- making
processes, change leaders can then make the adjustments necessary to maintain
momentum and drive results.
considered cont.:
Speak to the individual. Change is both an institutional journey and a very personal one.
People spend many hours each week at work; many think of their colleagues as a second
family.
Individuals (or teams of individuals) need to know how their work will change, what is
expected of them during and after the change program, how they will be measured, and what
success or failure will mean for them and those around them.
considered cont.:
Team leaders should be as honest and explicit as possible.

People will react to what they see and hear around them and need to be involved in the
change process.
Highly visible rewards, such as promotion, recognition, and bonuses, should be provided as
dramatic reinforcement for embracing change.
Sanction or removal of people standing in the way of change will reinforce the institution’s
commitment.
Stages of Change Management – Emotional Stages

Change is characterized by stages of change management, which everyone confronts when changes
arrive. The phases include:
(1)Denial stage – Stage 1

• Denial is the first stage of the four stages of change management, and it is observed as soon as a
change is implemented.
• In this stage, employees will first deny that change has arrived, even if you can read the signs boldly.
• Due to the fear of losing belonging, safety and psychological needs, employee usually feel bad and deny
the importance of change.
• Denial can happen due to many reasons which may include:
- hostile takeover of the company.
- new responsibilities being thrust on employees etc.

2) Resistance stage – The second stage of change management
• Out of the four stages of change management, resistance stage is

the second and very critical, as it is the stage where the productivity,
morale, and competency of the employees decline.

• Employees actively know that they don’t want this change to happen as
a result of which they will try to switch back to the old ways of working
things.
• This results in several delays and can also result in losses for the
company.
• It is important to note that at this stage, the employees will resist both
incompetence and awareness.
• They will try to keep their own control on things and to be aware of the
control resulting from the change.

Following the resistance, the employees will do the following:

• See anything that is wrong.
• Result in complaints instead of making the change work.
• Get into criticism and blame discussions, or responses with anger.
• If the resistance is open, it is the best time for you as a manager to do
some reality check, since the employees will voice their skepticism
and concerns brought by the change, after the engagement.

Some tips to deal with resistance include:
• Listening to the employee’s concerns and feelings without

stopping them.
• Encouraging them to share their skepticism and concerns
regarding the change.

2) Resistance stage – The second stage of change

management
• Motivating the employees to help in making the change work

instead of using the energy in taking activities with negative
impacts or complaining.
• Recognizing the loss they fear, such as loss of competence and
control, and coming up with ways like communication and
training to address the issues.

3) Exploration stage
• After the unsuccessful resistance of change, most employees start

exploring it, after realizing they cannot stop the change.
• At this stage, the employees look into the future by searching for
new responsibilities.
• But resistance makes some retain some skepticism, thus exploring
alternatives.
• The exploration of alternatives might make the employees be
distracted, lose focus, be indecisive and feel like they are doing
too much from the many ideas they explore.

• Since the employees’ alternates for some time between resistance

and exploration, you should play your role as a manager well,
because the turning down of their ideas and alternatives might
make them return to resistance.
• However, during the exploration, employees are hopeful of
making it in a new organization but ready to receive ideas of
solving the problem.
Some of the things you can do as a manager in addressing

exploration include:
• Conducting a survey of the change.
• Initiating temporary and non-binding pilot projects to
understand the impacts resulting from the change.
• Helping the shareholders in modifying their ideas in order to suit
the change.
• Accepting the change of attitude by the employees and providing positive feedback.
• Helping the employees in re-evaluating their careers.
• Providing more training and networking the employees to gain competence and knowledge.
• Addressing the lack of focus, fear and indecisiveness of the employees.
• Supporting and encouraging strategy and brainstorming sessions.

4) Acceptance/commitment stage
• Although acceptance is the final stage of change, it may not be due to consensus.
• The commitment is brought about by accepting the change, rather than fighting and ignoring
it.
• After the acceptance, the change is integrated into the processes, thinking, and values of the
organization.
• The acceptance stage is where both the managers and the employees embrace the change.

4) Acceptance/commitment stage
• Although the employees are committed after acceptance, they might not agree with
everything, but they convinced by the implementation then or later of a firm business strategy
and an inspiring vision of the business.
• Thus, the employees get committed with a feeling that their contribution will lead to a
successful implementation.

4) Acceptance/ commitment stage
• Through commitment, the productivity, and morale of the

employees increases, as well as their self-esteem.
• As a result, the relationship between employees
and team managers gets stronger, deeper and trustworthy.
• Change cannot be stopped, and whether it is positive or
negative change, you will undergo four stages of change.

4) Acceptance/ commitment stage
• Also, change causes pain, due to a feeling of incompetent,

facing the unknown and fear of failure.
• However, if you want to increase the rate of change acceptance
in your business, you should prevent common obstacles on the
way and be ready for change.
• Taking too much time in denial stage will lead to resistance,
which will then make it difficult for your business to achieve its
goals, due to low morale and productivity.
The Change Curve
 The change curve is a popular model used to describe a

person’s journey or transition through change.
 It helps to predict how people will react to change, so
management can support employees on that transition.
 When change is first introduced at work, the people
affected will typically go through four stages. These can
be visualized on the change curve.
 The stages are shock, anger, acceptance and
commitment.
Ken Blanchard’s Seven Dynamics of Change
• To implement changes at your company successfully, first understand how individuals
react to change.
These seven dynamics of change illustrate how employees will respond to new ideas and
work processes:
1) People will feel awkward, ill-at-ease and self-conscious.
Change means doing something different, and as such, people will almost always react
with some degree of discomfort. In fact, if you don’t feel awkward when you’re trying
something new, you’re probably not really doing anything differently.
• Say your organization is going to reorganize to allow for greater autonomy on the part of
individual work groups.
• Initially, such a change will feel awkward to almost everyone involved, including
individuals who will gain more autonomy, because everyone will have to think and act
differently than they have in the past.
2) People initially focus on what they have to give up.
 It’s human nature for an individual’s first reaction to a suggested change to be a

personal sense of loss.
 To move forward you must deal with this sense of loss.
 It may seem silly, but individuals need to be given a chance to mourn feelings of
loss, perhaps just by taking time to talk with others about how they feel.
2) People initially focus on what they have to give up.
 In the case of increased autonomy, initially individuals are apt to react to what
they are losing.
 Perhaps this will be staff resources they previously could count on for advice, or
even the simplicity of a time when their roles were clearer and they could simply
focus on putting in their hours and collecting their paychecks.
3) People will feel alone even if everyone else is going through the same change.
 Again, it is human nature to have a “Why me?” attitude about change even if everyone
around you faces the same thing.
 It is ironic that for the change to be successful, we need the support of others around us. In
fact, often you will need to ask for such support.
Workers may feel a sense of individual punishment to have to learn new ways of working.
 If you want the change to be successful, you will need to recruit the help and
understanding of those around you, many of whom will be feeling the same way you do.
4) People can handle only so much change.
 Beyond a few changes, or only one if the change is significant, people become immobilized
and may lose effectiveness.
 That’s why you need a clear plan and strategy for focusing your energy on the few things that
will net you the greatest results in terms of desired behaviors.
In reorganization, work teams need to start by mutually deciding on simpler tasks, like jointly
determining a work schedule, before they take on more extensive responsibilities regarding
budgeting, personnel and disciplinary actions.
 They need first to have some successful experiences to build a momentum for using the new
behaviors that you want to achieve.
5) People are at different levels of readiness for change.
 Although most everyone will experience some resistance to change, some people will be
able to get excited about a change more immediately, while others will dread and resist
doing anything differently for as long as they can.
 In the case of autonomous work groups, some individuals may quickly become excited
about the chance to implement their own ideas, while most others will need to warm up to
the new challenge and responsibilities.
 This doesn’t mean that one person is better than another, it just means people will have
different outlooks and degrees of flexibility for what you are asking of them.
6) People will be concerned about enough resources.
 Often in an organizational setting, as individuals are asked to do things differently, they

may perceive that since they are being asked to do more, they need additional resources.
 Increasingly, however, in order to remain competitive in today’s markets, organizations
must be more productive with fewer resources.
 Thus, you’ll need to focus energy to get more done with fewer resources rather than to get
more (and sometimes less) done with more resources.
 In autonomous work units, individuals may have to accept additional responsibilities.
They’ll need to work smarter to be able to do that well.
7) If you take the pressure off, people will revert to their old behavior.
 Typically, when the focus on a change effort ends, people tend to revert to what they were
previously doing.
 Though it is natural, managers must counteract such behavior. The relapse is not the
problem.
 Often when we revert to old behaviors, we simply ignore all we have learned.
7) If you take the pressure off, people will revert to their old behavior.
 For change to be lasting it must be self-perpetuating.

 Managers must make it clear that there is no going back to the old days.
 With the autonomous work group example, a company might change its compensation
plan to reward new and desired team activities. When a relapse does occur, step back, take
a deep breath and focus on the new benefits and positive gains you have achieved.
Reference
• Blanchard. K. (n.d.). The Seven Dynamics of Change.

https://www.sellingpower.com/2010/02/02/3745/the-seven-dynamics-of-change
• GreggU. (2022, June, 10). How to Overcome Resistance to Change. [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jqnNEpz_i4
• Lord. P. (2014, September, 4). The Human Side of Change Management.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140904230656-88081051-the-human-side-of- change-
management
• Titchen. M. (2016, May, 9). The Human Side of Change Management.
https://www.100pceffective.com/human-side-change-management/

Stages of Change Management Session 6

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Stages of Change Management Session 6

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Human Resource Management for Change

• Discuss the importance of managing the human side of change.

Neglecting the human side of change

Neglecting the human side of change

• What about the people who operate the machines?

Neglecting the human side of change

Neglecting the human side of change

The proof is in the past projects

• Management should welcome suggestions and open up lines of communication.

Create ownership. Leaders of large change programs must overperform during the

Address culture explicitly. Once the culture is understood, it should be addressed as

Team leaders should be as honest and explicit as possible.

(1)Denial stage – Stage 1

2) Resistance stage – The second stage of change management

• Out of the four stages of change management, resistance stage is

2) Resistance stage – The second stage of change management

2) Resistance stage – The second stage of change management

Following the resistance, the employees will do the following:

2) Resistance stage – The second stage of change management

Some tips to deal with resistance include:

• Listening to the employee’s concerns and feelings without

2) Resistance stage – The second stage of change

• Motivating the employees to help in making the change work

• After the unsuccessful resistance of change, most employees start

• Since the employees’ alternates for some time between resistance

Some of the things you can do as a manager in addressing

4) Acceptance/ commitment stage

• Through commitment, the productivity, and morale of the

4) Acceptance/ commitment stage

• Also, change causes pain, due to a feeling of incompetent,

 The change curve is a popular model used to describe a

1) People will feel awkward, ill-at-ease and self-conscious.

2) People initially focus on what they have to give up.

 It’s human nature for an individual’s first reaction to a suggested change to be a

2) People initially focus on what they have to give up.

4) People can handle only so much change.

5) People are at different levels of readiness for change.

 Often in an organizational setting, as individuals are asked to do things differently, they

 For change to be lasting it must be self-perpetuating.

• Blanchard. K. (n.d.). The Seven Dynamics of Change.

You might also like