There is a post on the Manage Smarter website this week that states that 1/3rd of all employees cannot adapt to change at work. That caught my attention. 33% can’t change. But dig deeper. Read further into the description of the study. The study took findings from a survey of 100 senior human resource professionals across North America. The survey asked: Is your workforce able to adapt to change and increase their effectiveness on the job? The results were:
• 31 percent—No, employee engagement and productivity are a major risk
• 43 percent—Somewhat, our workforce gets the job done, but morale suffers
• 26 percent—Yes, our workforce is very agile and responds to new challenges
Do you see the flaw in the findings and the reality of it? The Senior managers SAY their workforce can’t adapt to change. The survey didn’t ask those that would have to change – it asked the HR manager if they THOUGHT their employees could change.
Let Them Own The Change
Here’s the reality of it. People don’t mind change – they just hate being forced to change. If positioned correctly – and the employee is involved in the change – it is much less difficult to drive change. But normally what happens is decisions are made in mahogany-paneled boardrooms and passed down to the masses. “Do this and things will get better.” Too often the employees already know what change is required. They do the job every day. They know the flaws in the system. They know all about the pointless and inefficient processes they are forced to live with each day. Just ask them.
Seriously, just ask them. Please ask them. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you know more than them. You don’t. You may have a bit more information on the direction the company needs to head, since you sit in the meetings where these things are discussed. Why not tell your employees – “We need to get from here – to here.” Then ask them – “What’s the best way to do that?” You may just be surprised that they can come up with 100′s of different ideas. All of which they will jump to implement.
A huge driver of employee engagement is a psychological principle called “locus of control” – the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them. Increasing your employees’ belief (and reality) that they have control over the outcomes will increase their desire to make changes and increase their engagement with the change.
Don’t take HR’s word for it… Your people aren’t afraid of change – they’re afraid of you trying to change them!
This article, written last year, is titled People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them. It has some good solutions for improving corporate change.
http://www.changethis.com/48.01.CorporateChange
Great article, so true! Nobody likes to be forced into anything out of their comfort zone, especially if they disagree the change is for the better. There is also research out there relating to employees age, job function and how long they’ve been at the company and how well they are able to adapt to change. It’s interesting the older we get and the more time we spend with something the less likely we are to let go.
Cheers,
Jessica M
Akken staffing software and recruiting software
Great post, Paul. Your point of “locus of control” reminded me of a recent definition of engagement (and there are so many) that rang true with me: (from AsiaOne)
“Employee engagement is a combination of both commitment (that is, willing to contribute to the organisation’s success) and line of sight (that is, know what to do to make the organisation successful).”
Line of sight — an individual’s understanding of their role in the organization and how what they do helps the company succeed. We all need to know that we matter. In the workplace, we need to know that what we do contributes to the security and well-being of everyone with a successful company.
As you know, employee recognition is a powerful tool to create line of sight in the most positive way possible – with simple recognition of effort and a sincere thank you linked to precisely what it is you need your employees to accomplish.
Great post Paul – ownership is a absolutely critical to a successful change initiative! Thanks for bringing this important topic up. I’ve featured your post in my weekly Rainmaker ‘Fab Five’ blog picks of the week (found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_retention/2009/04/the-rainmaker-fab-five-blog-picks-of-the-week-1.html) to bring this tipic to my readers’ attention.
Be well Paul!
If you’ve ever seen Marco Rubio’s CPAC speech (he’s a Republican, I am not). He plays to America’s fear of change by accusing democrats of being top-down managers, and I think he makes a good psychological point.
So I think there’s some political relevance here, too.