Frequently Asked Questions About Change

Frequently Asked Questions About Change

An excerpt from the the new book now in paperback!
Employee's Survival Guide to Change

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Many employees will resist change. How they resist and the choices they make can influence the success of your change project, the impact on productivity and employee morale, and ultimately employee turnover.

Oftentimes, how employees choose to react to change is impacted by answers to frequently asked questions that employees have about change.

The Survival Guide to Change presents the ADKAR model, a framework to help employees through the change process. The excerpt provided below presents employee frequently asked questions about change.

This tutorial is the second in a series that presents key concepts from this new change management book that is based on research with more than 700 organizations world-wide.

The text is written in second person with the intended audience the employees undergoing change.

Why is change happening now?

You may feel like change is happening all of a sudden and that it is directed right at you. In reality, most changes begin outside the company many months or even years before internal change takes place. Research shows that most major business changes are a response to changes in the external marketplace.

These external marketplace changes can result in:

    • Loss of market share (your company is losing money).

    • New offers or capabilities by competitors (they're creating new business faster than your company).

    • Lower prices (their cost of doing business is lower, resulting in better prices to their customers).

External business drivers take time to set in. If they have already affected the bottom line of your company, change is needed immediately. In some cases it is already too late — the internal change should have started much sooner.

What is the rush for me?

Employees usually find out what is happening after the fact. Organizations do not always share financial information or talk about poor performance issues with employees. Therefore, when change is needed quickly, employees may be taken by surprise.

On one hand, organizations are trying to implement change as quickly as possible, while on the other, employees are one step behind trying to understand why the change is needed and how they will be impacted.

Unfortunately for the company, most employees are in no hurry to change. In fact, many employees may not see the need to change at all. Forcing employees to change when they do not understand the business reasons can be a lot like pushing a giant cube of Jello — you might have an impact, but no real overall shift occurs.

When the force is removed, everything returns to the way it was before.

What will change mean to me?

Change to a business can include:

    • New ways of doing work.
    • New systems or tools.
    • New reporting structures.
    • New job roles.
    • New products or services.
    • New markets or geographic locations.

How will the change impact me?

That depends on your current job, the extent of the change, and the choices you make in response to the change.

With small changes, you may not be impacted at all. With major changes, you may be doing new work, using new tools or reporting to a new manager. With radical changes to the business, some employees may work in other departments or even move to other companies.

When the change is implemented, each person will be affected differently. In the end, how you react to the change plays an important role in how the change will impact you. Part 2 of this guide presents the choices you have in response to change.

What are the benefits of supporting the change?

The benefits of supporting the change, especially changes that are critical to the success of the organization, include:

    1. Enhanced respect and reputation within the organization.

    2. Improved growth opportunities (especially for active supporters of the change).

    3. Increased job satisfaction (knowing you are helping your organization respond effectively to a rapidly
       changing marketplace).

    4. Improved job security.

For more information on how the Employee's Survival Guide to Change can help you and your employees through change click here or call us at 970-203-9332. Additional frequently asked questions covered in the survival guide are:

In the next tutorial learn how 254 companies used training plans during their change projects.

Change Management Toolkit
Guidelines, templates and checklists for change management teams and consultants.