Content:
Of course, you have managed a difficult business change at some point in your career.
You understand how much business requires constant change and adjustment. This is how business works. Teams that thrive recognize that change is not an inconvenience, but rather a necessary part of their DNA. Accepting change opens the door to growth, innovation and new business.
But here is the caveat.
A sudden, unexpected change triggers a personal emotional response.
People react to sudden change with shock, confusion, anger, and resistance. They oppose the change, acting as a force vectoring in the opposite direction of the desired change.
This comes as a natural force, fierce and raw.
Consider the emotional response to be a natural force.
Because we’ll be back on more manageable ground.
Humanity has learned to deal with natural forces by exploiting them, respectively shelter from them. We discovered natural principles and created tools, infrastructure, and systems to live in a world ruled by natural forces.
And we already understand the principles of emotional reactions to change.
Typically, the change causes a wave of emotions with two peaks and two valleys. This pattern has six stages of transitions (shock, denial, realization, acceptance, informed optimism, and full integration).
We can describe the emotional ups and downs that occur after a change in business as usual is announced.
Thus, change always causes a wave of individual emotions with two valleys and two tops. This is nature.
Without acknowledging this natural law, you are moved in these emotional waves up and down, but you cannot navigate.
You are doomed to passivity, like a message in the bottle.
On the other hand, we can see the pattern because we know it is a law. It always does. When someone throws a stone into a calm pond, it creates waves.
It may not be your responsibility in your job to throw the stone, but it may be your responsibility to deal with the consequences.
And because it is a law of nature, we know how to act.
First: Don’t fight the waves. Navigate your team through it.
Your team moves like a group of swimmers in the pond.
They are being moved up and down by big waves, caused by the announcement. Everyone is now buoyant and wears a personal floating device. This swaying in the waves may be unsettling for some, but no one is in immediate danger. Life won’t end today.
If you try to flatten the waves or keep people in one position, it could end in tragedy.
You don’t want to keep people at the top, when the valley of the wave is there, because the plunge to reality might be severe. To keep anyone unnecessarily long in the valley when the wave has moved on will cause damage.
Well-intentioned is not well-done.
You know about the waves. Don’t get swept away by the waves in the pond. You must play the role of the swim instructor on the pond’s sideline.
Second: Help them through the waves, support the team to stay afloat.
When confronted with the shock and aww that follows an announcement of, say, restructuring, outsourcing, or acquisition, emotions and politics can run so high that the macro-management of the entire emotional process is frequently overlooked.
Because in business, we don’t focus on emotions directly.
We don’t get into personal details or emotional reactions. Legal ramifications, but more importantly, respect for our coworkers and employees, demand it.
We have other options in business.
So, let’s start with the big picture.
We start when the plan for change becomes public.
Shock and denial: Provide clarity, avoid confusion so that the change is recognized.
It begins with developing a common understanding of the current state of the business, the desired future state, and how to get there.
The team will be sent down into the valley because of this.
The vast majority of this is one-way information from a credible, respected source. It is about maintaining consistency across all channels and sources.
If the contents to explain the change are too complex, which they usually are, a message plan can help to spread out the message over time and allow time for the information to sink in. Typically, a time lag of three to seven days before the next message comes out can help to reduce confusion when delivering a complex message.
A carefully crafted one-directional message plan, that stretches out for a few weeks with a consistent message, helps to get through shock and denial stages and sets the stage for focused interaction on the next stages.
This information should be written in colloquial language and carefully edited for contradictions in the message plan. Unknowns in the transition, such as who will be affected by the change and to what extent, should be labeled as such or left out.
Consistent messaging shows that management is in control of the change.
An easy to understand, symbolic target should be the center piece and positive vision of the change. Automotive is blessed, because a product, a new car can always be the result of such a massive change.
Leadership must both lead and be heard.
Even if the message is not well received, the way it is communicated can help build the most important resource in the change process: trust. Trust that we will all make it through the storm.
Realization and acceptance: Pick up the echo and fine-tune the plan.
When leadership has indisputably delivered the message about the inevitable change and provided direction, it is time to hear the organization.
But only then. You ought to keep the team in sync with the emotional waves.
We are firm believers in participation and the value created by focused discussion. However, to progress through the stages in a timely manner, all interaction must center on one topic: the change. Any debate about the necessity of change stalls progress. Leadership in business must clearly and unambiguously set the agenda for the discussion.
When the agenda for the discussion is clearly set, involvement of line management and employees starts.
The objective is to further grow the trust of the organization and supporters for the change.
The format can be townhall meetings, a cascade of workshops and online meetings.
This stage has a simple and measurable goal: win 20 to 30 percent of the organization’s support for the change. If these 20 to 30 percent are your key opinion leaders in your informal trust networks, you can consider this change process a success at this point.
However, the following stages are still crucial, and you can still win the overall race even if you haven’t yet won over all of your informal opinion leaders.
Enablement – Provide new skills at scale.
The first signs of a positive mood shift and growing confidence signal the start of an enablement avalanche.
As soon as organizational opinion leaders regain their optimistic outlook on the business (and share their perspective with others), programs to equip employees with necessary new skills can be launched.
Such programs must be planned, designed and delivered ahead of time and delivered in a timely and inspiring manner. The foresight to develop appropriate training programs, as well as the design and delivery capability, are huge but often overlooked success factors, floating devices for the team. So, assistance is available when employees recognize what new skills they will require in the future.
The training strategy must prioritize trainings that improve the business KPIs monitored during the transformation.
A training on pricing strategies while rolling out a new retail agency structure would be greatly appreciated. The same can be said for trainings to optimize battery cell manufacturing during the ramp-up of the new giga plants. Or trainings on AI in simulations applied in car manufacturers’ revamped planning processes.
Whatever the topic of the change, training must provide the necessary underlying new skills.
The willingness of employees to learn new skills in order to adapt to change should not be underestimated. In contrast, a lack of appropriate skill training always results in stress, frustration, and resignation. And is blocking every change process.
At this stage, the ROI of training is equal to the ROI of the entire transformation.
This is why training is essential to get through the second valley. The transformation will almost certainly result in a negative ROI if no investments are made here, and the team is still stranded in the valley of despair.
This is currently the location of most of the German automotive industry.
The automotive transformation will fail for at least some big players unless they upskill and reskill. The transition will be slower and may fail faster if training is insufficient or irrelevant and unengaging.
But the process of managing the team through the waves is not over yet. The following step is required to bring the business back up to speed.
Coaching – Maintain clarity and focus, fine-tune daily operations.
When the first waves of enablement have been successfully delivered, the new insights and skills have been applied at work, and the business KPIs have improved, control of the transition is transferred to the line business.
As the team approaches the second, higher peak, your responsibilities for managing the team through the waves diminish.
But it is not yet over.
Because change and adjustment are constant in business. This is how the business world operates. Even the transformation is not constant, and it evolves during the implementation process.
The CEO already has the next stone ready to be thrown into the still-moving pond.
The CEO is aware of the waves and the burden that a sudden change in direction, another stone into the pond, is causing the team, weighing the energy required to implement another change against the resisting forces that have been triggered.
For you, it is becoming increasingly difficult to remain unmoved on the sidelines and support the team in staying afloat, especially in a VUCA environment, as so many parts of the business have become in recent years.
In this phase, coaching and mentoring is enormously impactful.
Contemporary transformational coaching programs are delivered through platforms, and address productivity, managing partner relations, leadership in change, and employer branding. Platforms are much more powerful, effective and cost-efficient than classic coaching programs.
Trust between coach and coachee is the “conditio sine qua non,” the one thing that cannot be compromised – and this is ensured by a pool of certified and very experienced coaches from which the coachee can choose, the highest data security standards, and the platform’s easy communication, scheduling, and feedback features.
We’ve seen how coaching at scale can improve an entire workplace culture.
Communication is more concise and time-efficient, allowing for more focused work. Conflicts are less likely to erupt and are resolved more quickly. Coachees report increased efficiency while also improving their personal well-being. Coaching is the most effective way to retain and attract talent, particularly in fast-paced business teams.
Positive impacts of coaching have not only been studied by scientists but have been also measured by numerous companies managing a transition.
But coaching unfolds its miraculous powers only when it has been prepared by the actions in the previous waves. Coaching cannot replace the effect of a targeted information campaign or involving communication measures. If it is used for this purpose, it is very likely to have negligible effect.
This is because the team must be guided through the waves of change.
Into the first valley onto the first peak, and then into the second valley. Only when the team is here, coaching unfolds its full effect.
But then the effect of coaching at scale is unsurpassed.
The entire process, including information campaign, communication, training, and coaching, is a scientific response to the natural force of emotional reaction to change.
To lead teams to success in automotive transformation, there are designed, measurable support programs. Despite the complexity of the programs, designing and managing them is a craft.
It’s natural for the traditional auto industry to be in despair, but if it can harness this craft, it will be able to recover.
