Dealing with emotions

Realize that people go through different phases of change with corresponding emotions. It’s important to recognize, acknowledge, and address these emotions to accelerate the change program.

 

The emotional phases of organizational change

• Denial: You deny the impending change. You indicate that it is not that important, and the focus remains on what you always do. You suppress negative feelings.

• Anger: You are angry at the person initiating the change program and angry at what is changing. You feel frustration and irritation.

• Bargaining: You make proposals to avoid changing, so it seems less significant.

• Sadness: You feel sad because you have to say goodbye to the old familiar things. A period of mourning begins.

• Letting Go: You can only let go once you have said goodbye to the old. Only then can you focus on the future. Your feelings are more positive because you can look forward to new opportunities.

• Acceptance: You resign to the new reality. You know what is expected of you, and that gives peace, confidence, and satisfaction. It can also give you courage and pleasure to work together towards the future.

 

Exercise:

• Create floor chartssigns of the phases of a change.

• Discuss the situation, the change, and explain what the different phases entail. Explain that everyone can be in a different phase and that every emotion is allowed.

• Ask participants to stand on a floor chartsign: on the phase that best matches their feelings at that moment.

• Let participants tell each other what emotion they have and how others can recognize it. Acknowledge the emotions. You don’t need to judge them or solve them.

• Let participants in another phase tell what they experience and how they moved to the next phase. This offers perspective.