CCE - Center for Coaching Excellence

by Mary Verstraete

Redesigning trainings…starting new projects…launching a new web-site…building a new team. And that’s just a few of the changes here at CCE in the last six months. I am thrilled by the possibilities of the new things that change brings. On the other hand, change engages emotions for all of us because of what we must leave behind to reach for the new opportunities in our future.

Change triggers questions like:

• What will change?
• What will stay the same?
• How will it impact me?

Nothing undermines organizational change as much as the failure to think through who will have to let go of what when change occurs. What makes this statement true? Change is situational: for example, the new site, the new opportunities, the new team, the new processes, but transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new reality. Change is external, transition is internal.

People impacted by change have a genuine need to reorient themselves psychologically and the internal psychological transition depends on letting go of the old reality and the old identity. When people let go, they enter the neutral zone: the no-man’s-land where the old is gone and the new doesn’t yet feel comfortable.

Though it can often be painful, tedious, and a challenge for leaders to guide an organization through this time, it’s often in the neutral zone where the organization finds the best chance for creativity, renewal, and development. How can leaders navigate the neutral zone?

• Acknowledge the feelings. When endings take place, emotions can be mistaken for bad morale, but they aren’t. They are the signs of grieving, the natural sequence of emotions people go through when they lose something that matters to them.
• Bring losses out into the open. Acknowledge them and express your concern for the affected people. Do it simply and directly. If you push people to get over their feelings, you’ll be handicapped with people who never “mended.”
• Be prepared for an overreaction. When old losses haven’t been adequately dealt with, a sort of transition deficit is created – a readiness to grieve that only needs an ending to set it off. Learn to look for the loss behind the loss and deal with that underlying issue.
• Don’t argue with what you hear. It will stop the conversation and you won’t learn any more. Helping individuals to process these emotions can motivate people to take ownership of the change.
• Communicate over and over again. Don’t delay. Perceived secrets can destroy trust and foil change efforts. Send the message in many different ways. It’s okay to say you don’t know. Tell them what you do know and when you will know more. Then, follow up with more information when you have it.
• Treat the past with respect. Don’t ridicule or discount the past in your enthusiasm for the future. Distinguish the new from the old, but do it respectfully. Honor the natural longing people have for the past by creating continuity from the past to the future.

Whatever must end, must end. Don’t drag it out. Plan it carefully, and once it is done, let there be time for reorientation. The first task of change management is to understand the destination and how to get there, the first task of transition management is to engage in the losses and feelings of those impacted by change, and understanding the feelings and emotions of the “neutral zone”.

~ Mary Verstraete