Staff Changes Are Difficult for Everyone

As companies evolve their business models and strategy, their organizations, by default, also change. Let me state this in another way. Evolving businesses, by default, must evolve their organizations. Those that don't, risk losing the game and can find themselves suddenly in jeopardy.  This evolution affects every member of the company from senior management down to line staff.

We humans generally don't like change. We like routine. We like a framework. This is why changes in our lives often cause anxiety, loss of sleep, weight loss, etc. In the same way, changes within an organization often causes high levels of stress and anxiety. 

In one of my companies, as we were expanding our International presence, it became apparent that my then current International Sales Manager wasn't up to the new, expanded role. I had to make a tough decision and terminate his employment. It wasn't a case of him not being a good guy, it was that the role had outgrown his capability and it was time to move on.

I've found that most employees internalize organizational changes. They often default to the natural question of "how does this change affect me?" And because change is stressful, employees often go to the worst-case scenario.

So it's important for company leaders to proactively communicate to staff about changes in an open fashion.  In the absence of good, open communications, staff will always default to the worst-case-scenario and morale will be negatively affected.

This is a leadership challenge and I'd love to get your thoughts on your own experiences. Leave me your comments below.

Comments

[Israel]

It is interesting how we constantly seek the wisdom of trying to foresee the future. Calling it change or however we want to, it is the uncertainty on not knowing what comes next that is hard to incorporate into our daily routines (routine? repetition of what is known?).
There are many management and leadership theories that provide guidelines on how to get started and moving. But what is interesting is the company evolution process that by itself creates rigid structural comfort zones. It is how formal education teaches us business should be run.
True evolving is to born and die simultaneously while keeping the pace. It is like changing engines at 30 thousand feet high: no time for landing. Unless a company team doesn't see the "what is there for them" on that path, the revolving door of people leaving and coming might be busy.
After all, yes, good communication, transparency and fully understanding on what are the key factors for the company will be a good atmosphere where you can nurture a solid committed team.

[Brian Weiner]

It has been my experience over the last 18+ years in business to always remember, as you clearly identified, that people are inherently resistant to change of almost any kind. As a result, when we made an inescapable shift in our staffing, we have tried to mitigate people's concerns by retraining the now obsolete employee or by working with them to find another opportunity and providing them with a reasonable exit plan. Also, we have tried to make sure that all our personnel understand why we did, what we did, so that they could understand that the action was not arbitrary. We have found that most people deal well with rational decisions. As you said...in the vacuum that accompanies lean communications...unhappy employees tend to be the by-product.

[Dan Miller]

Thanks for your insights! Greatly appreciated.