FrenchBend over here it comes again! BOHICA: An introduction to introducing something new.
- Posted on February 16, 2015
- By EMS Cognito
- in Change
- Comments: Comments Off on Bend over here it comes again! BOHICA: An introduction to introducing something new.
- Comments Off on Bend over here it comes again! BOHICA: An introduction to introducing something new.
“Oh no, they are back, the managers have been in a room for a day and now they are smiling, I bet I will lose my job, hmm nothing good will come of this!”
The first thought of people facing something new is fear, how will this affect them and how will things change? People are only fearful when they do not have enough information so you need to make sure you tell them as much as you know and if you don’t know much then help them to see that, but don’t leave them in the dark. If people don’t have enough info they will make it up and no news spreads better than bad news so it will never be good.
“How could they do this to me? What do they think I have nothing better to do”
The first reaction to anything new is anger, we don’t like change so you need to make sure that when you are telling people what the change is you help them understand the benefit, why do we n
need to do something different?
“argghh, why do they think I care? I heard what they said but I don’t believe it, it won’t happen”
The next thought is denial, you have told them what the change will be but they know that you don’t mean it. You need to convince them that the change will
happen so I would very quickly follow the news with action, start a small bit of the change so people can see that you are serious and this is going to happen.
“They are going to do it anyway so I may as well go along with it”
Not bought in the change won’t stick they accept that the change is coming but are only compliant with the change and have not embraced the change yet. By this time you will have implemented some action so you need to show them the physical change and following the action, they will start to see it is not so scary.
“This is easy, why didn’t we do this years ago”
When the change is in and as people get used to it they start to understand it.
You and I and everyone will go through these stages with every change, the trick is moving through the stages quickly and not getting stuck in one of them and that is your role as a manager. Do change things but have a thought for what your team are going through and ask yourself the question how can I help my team move through these stages quickly and not get stuck. It is a challenge.
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