Yes.
Because anything that changes for a group of people in an organization is a threat to some individual.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Here is how CM is not threatening.:
- It helps focus on goals
- It lends a supportive hand to behavioral change
- It clarifies communication
- It makes information transparent
- It makes knowledge and information available
- It mentors, develops and builds leaders
- It increases camaraderie
- It anticipates people (people being a generic term for human nature)
- It thinks of the whole and provides support to the parts
- It does things that should already be done just in a more gracious way
There are plenty more bullets, you get the idea.
Where is the threat then?
The threat is to the status quo.
If, individually, you do not want something to be different you will not be happy with change management. This is beyond the everybody-will-resist-because-change-takes-something-away perspective. These are the differences that effect someone’s world in what they consider a negative way (and with some of them they are right).
Threats:
- Layoffs (usually referred to as RIF’s)
- “Planned attrition”
- Restructuring
- Executive islands (my term for org. design that leaves a leader with no reports)
- Disruption of operational processes
- Guaranteed reduced productivity
- Reduced compensation (the sales function especially)
- The ability to move things quicker (fair or not, an external advantage)
- Ambiguity
- Unknown and unpredictable actions and decisions
- Anything that questions, undermines or changes ownership
- Tweaks to power spots (sometimes done as part of a reorg. within change to direct leadership to a different person)
Here too, there are plenty more bullets.
What does this tell us?
No not that we must focus on overcoming resistance.
It tells us that change management is a broad thing that effects many. If the change is smart and makes sense (in that bigger picture) then it should be something the majority of stakeholders would be willing to participate in and be involved with (and appreciate when the end state arrives).
It also tells us that attention needs to be paid to those spots where there are real or imagined threats. Fear (one emotional response to threats) spreads fast. Witness our 10 years of 9-11 reaction. Fear (even for those who do not have a genuine threat, but are being pulled along with “group fear”) makes people do and say strange things. “Keep your government hands off my Medicare”.
Change Management then must have a component that addresses the flight or fight response. Information and support are the tools. It must also reduce risk by pinpointing those exact individuals that, in their fear, might present a risk or a problem.
Great points, again!