The psychology of change

Disciplines > Change Management > The psychology of change

When change is announced, the results can be significant, which means you should seek to manage the cognitive and behavioral changes from the very beginning.

• Initial concerns: The threat to deep systems.
• Initial reactions: Negative or positive?
• The Kübler-Ross grief cycle: The emotional cycle on given bad news.
  • Shock stage: Initial paralysis at hearing the bad news.
  • Denial stage: Trying to avoid the inevitable.
  • Anger stage: Frustrated outpouring of bottled-up emotion.
  • Bargaining stage: Seeking in vain for a way out.
  • Depression stage: Final realization of the inevitable.
  • Testing stage: Seeking realistic solutions.
  • Acceptance stage: Finally finding the way forward.
• The positive change cycle: Even good news has its ups and downs.
• Resistance to change: When people push back against the change.
  • Rationale for resistance: What people tell themselves.
  • The resistance zoo: the animals and their styles of resistance.
  • Signs of resistance: spotting subtle signals of dissent.
  • How to cause resistance: there are many ways!
• Strong and weak commitment: After an agreement, commitment may vary.

In managing the initial announcement, the key is to do just that: manage it. Rather than just announce is, first think about the effects that it will have and stage the communication in a way to have the impact and effect that you desire, rather than resulting in a bloody mess that turns what at first seemed to be an easy change into what more resembles open warfare.

See also