• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Enclaria: Influence Change at Work

Equipping individuals and teams to influence organizational change

  • Change Academy
  • Toolkit
  • Free Influence Course
  • Change Academy
  • Toolkit
  • Free Influence Course

Four Fundamental Responses to Change

Everyone responds to change differently. It depends on their history, the change in question, and even their mood that day. And yet, there is a pattern to how people respond.

To help illuminate the responses to change, let’s take a simple look at change itself. By definition, change requires moving away from the current state to a different future state.

Current State —>>> Future State

Both of these states can trigger emotions. People will feel either positively or negatively about leaving the current state, and they will feel positively or negatively about moving toward the future state.

We can chart the responses on a grid:

Responses:PositiveNegative
Away from Current StateRELIEFATTACHMENT
Toward Future StateHOPEDOUBT

Relief

The positive response to leaving the current state is relief. People are glad that the current way of doing things is ending. One of my clients is at the beginning of an ERP implementation that everyone agrees is several years too late. Employees can’t wait to get off the clunky old system.

We can engender this positive feeling of leaving the status quo by creating some dissatisfaction with the way things are. Play up the pain points people experience because of the current state.

Hope

The positive response to moving toward the future state is hope. In this quadrant, people like the direction the organization is going and want to see it happen. They may even be enthusiastic and take active steps to move forward.

To create a sense of hope, develop and share a clear vision of the future. Tap into people’s imaginations of how good things can be once the change is complete.

Attachment

Moving away from the current state can also cause a negative response: attachment. In this quadrant, people hold onto the comfort of the status quo. They stick with their well-worn patterns. Perhaps their identity is associated with the way things are because they are the expert or they helped develop the current way. They cling to the current state for security.

To alleviate attachment, help people let go of the current state. Celebrate progress so far, while saying goodbye to the past. Break habits. Help them feel supported as they make the change. Build trust and listen.

Doubt

The negative response toward the future state is doubt. Uncertainty about the future makes people worry in this quadrant. Even if they want to leave the current state, they’ll hesitate if they don’t believe the future state is the right way to go or don’t think the organization can accomplish it.

Remove doubt with commitment. Drive certainty through communication and leadership. Provide resources to assure people that the change will be successful. Prove the concept and share stories of success. Empower them to take ownership of the change.

Of course, because people are complex, emotional beings, they can reside in all four quadrants at once! To influence change, the goal is to induce positive responses while minimizing the negative responses. To do that, you’ll need to:

  • Stir up dissatisfaction with the way things are, to create a sense of relief that it will be left behind;
  • Share a clear vision of the future, to generate hope and enthusiasm;
  • Provide support to overcome attachment to the current state; and
  • Demonstrate commitment in order to remove doubt.

What do you think – does this capture all the responses you’ve seen people have to change? What else would you add?

Share
Previous Post: « Seven Extra Skills You Need to Become a Versatile Change Agent
Next Post: Top Change Articles of 2019 at Enclaria »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ada Crenshaw

    December 17, 2019 at 11:43 am EST

    What I’ve come across in the 20 years in my industry is attachment and doubt. When people have been using a certain type of software application for several years or more, they become comfortable with their job and what they do. When they hear of a change coming, let’s say a new software change (example: Windows), they instantly think “What am I not going to be able to find now??” The fear of the unknown is all too familiar.

    [In my experience] Most of the time when a change of this magnitude occurs, there is a lot of push back and resentment. This is because upper management makes the decision to enact a change and does not even bother to ask the people who work with the product/software on a daily basis. These decisions are made by people higher up the corporate ladder looking at how much money they can save.
    There are many ways to help employees deal with change only if it is done properly. Change starts from the top down. One of the reasons there is so much doubt in regards to change is because most of the time the change that affects the group most is left out of the decision making. I am not saying all employees have to have a say-so when a company decides to make changes, but at least involve the people who will be affected by the change.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

free five drivers of change video course Get the Free Course

Upcoming Events

  1. Fundamentals of Influencing Change at Work | Online Course

    April 13 - June 22

View All Events

** Change Management Course **

Fundamentals of Influencing Change at Work - Online

eventbanner

April 13 - June 22, 2021
Register Now

On-Demand Video Course

Unlock Resistance to Change

Unlock Resistance to Change Course

Spark more moments when people stop resisting and embrace change.

Take the Class

Change Toolkit

toolkit image Get the Toolkit

Connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • The Four Stages of Change Management
  • Top Change Articles of 2020 at Enclaria
  • When Good Leadership Masks Resistance
  • Four Emotions That Keep People From Embracing Change
  • Three Signs of Resistance That Are Really Engagement
Tweets by @heatherstagl

Footer

Let’s Connect!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Search this Site

Log In

Upcoming Events

  1. Fundamentals of Influencing Change at Work | Online Course

    April 13 - June 22

View All Events

Navigation

Contact
About Enclaria
Blog
Podcast

Copyright © 2021 Enclaria: Influence Change at Work · All Rights Reserved