Energy: The Catalyst of Change

June 2001

The cycle of change causes discomfort to everyone. This article addresses the energy of people involved in and affected by change and why it is important to work with that energy to understand, improve, and effect desired change.

by Laura Markos, Ph.D.
Consulting in the Process of Change

A well-known cartoon by Sidney Harris features two scientists studying a wall-sized blackboard that is covered in mathematical calculations. Amidst the scientific hieroglyphics spanning the wall, there is a break in the symbols, and the words, "Then a miracle occurs.…" The captioned voice of one of the scientists reads, "I think you should be more explicit here in Step Two." [copyright © Sydney Harris.]

The cartoon resonates for two paradoxical reasons: one, because it seems ludicrous to cross over from mathematical-scientific logic to the stuff of faith which defies articulation; and two, because innately we know that some things in life are exactly like that. Change, in fact, is like that for many.

To many managers and would-be leaders, and to employees bombarded by change in their organizations, the inevitable and increasingly ubiquitous process of change is often mysterious. Change is a process most people don't understand, and thus a prospect to which people often react negatively—and resist. This resistance to change is the biggest challenge to its success.

This series of articles examines the phases in the process of change:

• Disruption—new data, facts, participants or goals that alter the status quo
• Imaging—envisioning a new future encompassing the new elements
• Energy—effort directed toward or resistant of change
• Action—the result of positive or resistive energies
• Change—the new combination of elements resulting from the cycle
• Closure—the new state of being maintained until the cycle begins again

This installment in the series focuses on the "miracle" or pivot point of successful, or unsuccessful, change efforts—the energy of people involved in and affected by change—and how change agents can work with that energy to understand, improve, and effect desired change, including gaining the support of those who initially resist it.

Energy: A Powerful Force in Times of Change

Risk managers often fight uphill battles to introduce change, particularly if it is prospective or proactive in nature. Many a risk manager has wondered why crisis seems to catalyze change—change they had lobbied for in calmer times—and why only crisis seems to yield change in some organizations. Like all change agents, risk managers are often challenged, and sometimes defeated, by resistance to change in its various forms.

By understanding and engaging people's energy about change, leaders, change agents, and managers can:

• Understand the essential role of resistance in change;
• Learn to involve organizational members as participants in and facilitators of change;
• Learn to embrace and use resistance to facilitate change.

People react differently and very personally to change, and the energy of people involved in and affected by change is very powerful. Positive reactions can be supportive of change and yield its success, while negative reactions can undermine or thwart planned change. Thus, anticipation and awareness of the impact of and reactions to change are fundamental for the change agent, leader, or manager of any change initiative.

Awareness of Change

To get in touch with the nature of change, it is helpful to begin by thinking of one's own experiences with change. Whether personal or professional, think of the kinds of feelings that change has evoked in you. Strong feelings about change are particularly evident when change is forced, when we feel a loss of control, or when it comes as a surprise. Across occupations and industries, socioeconomic and education levels, similar experiences with change occur. This is a critical aspect of understanding and managing change.

People's energy around a change initiative can either move toward a common, shared image of a mutually desired future, or that energy can resist change, fighting against it, or combinations of both. Like a chemical reaction to the introduction of new molecules, the reaction to change may be steady and lead to a new balanced, inert, or stable state; or it may be explosive, leading instead to a volatile state. It is here that many planned change efforts fail, and it is here that those mysterious and rare successful change efforts are won.

Individual Reactions To and Needs during Change

Regardless of how widespread or systemic change is, ultimately it is personal. People's lives, daily activities, motivations, satisfaction, and sense of self are affected by changes in their work and workplaces. Reactions to change can include resentment, fear, anger, surprise, shock, defensiveness, grief, helplessness, hopelessness, isolation, abandonment, denial, and uncertainty. These strong feelings need to be worked through: a memo or tutorial training session won't do it, although many organizations assume just that.

On the positive side, change can evoke feelings of relief, hope, renewal, progress, and opportunity. People may feel that they have finally been heard, that dysfunction will be corrected, or that the organization is moving in an exciting new direction. Yet, even with positive feelings about change, it is salient to explore these emotional reactions, to ensure that they are aligned with management's vision and strategies. Otherwise, even supporters can quickly turn toward resistance to change.

The feelings change evokes are very human, and to deny them or minimize them is a mistake. Consider the individuals on the receiving end of a layoff, merger, or restructuring and their very real and visceral reactions to change. People need to examine, understand, and think through imminent change in order to see how it affects them, how their roles change, and how they will contribute in the new, changed environment.

On an organizational level, denial of people's reactions to change is also a mistake—one that accounts for the frequent failure of new businesses, mergers, reorganizations, and the like. To succeed, organizations need to understand and address the human side of organizational life and people's needs to process change as it occurs.

Rallying and Focusing Support for Change

Positive reactions can be supportive of change. Yet, it is important to understand positive responses, to ensure that they are truly consistent, and not based on different assumptions, perceptions, or planned actions that sound similar to proposed change. To explore this, change agents need to articulate and discuss the motives for change and how change is to be implemented. Recognizing people's roles in the genesis, implementation, and success of change initiatives is key.

Using dialogue with the people involved and affected by change aids everyone in working through planned change, from vision through implementation. This interaction draws on everyone's experience and expertise; it involves people in developing their own future; and it builds collaborative support for new ways of working.

Engaging and Embracing Resistance to Change

Negative reactions to change, while usually anticipated by management, are often ignored, overlooked, or suppressed in change initiatives. Yet, these strong emotional reactions—fear, challenge, failure, resistance, etc., as mentioned above—are the most powerful catalysts of change or its demise. When people are not made part of change in its development, it is natural for them to wonder what they did wrong, whether they will still have a role, or how they are to participate and contribute to the new environment, if at all. It is vital that change agents recognize how to engage, embrace and empower these forces of resistance as catalysts of change.

Failure of planned change is common because change leaders or initiators often do not anticipate, or adequately address, the resistance to change, which is as natural and as certain as life itself. The resistance aspect of change can make it or break it. Understanding, addressing, and embracing resistance is elemental to understanding and managing change.

Engaging and embracing resistance means talking with, not at, all stakeholders involved in or affected by change. It means listening more than telling. People need involvement in order to transform their understanding and participation in change initiatives. Stakeholders are also a wealth of information, ideas, and innovative ways to make planned change happen; they are the people who know the circumstances the best.

Embracing resistance is also a process of facilitating grieving—helping people to work through what is now in the past, and beginning to see a new and different future. This process of holding onto what remains of value, and letting go of what is no longer valued, takes time, time which aids in the personal and organizational transitions required to make change effective.

If properly addressed, resistance cannot only be dealt with and transformed toward positive action, but it can reveal the keys to making a change effort succeed, to building the right combination of organizational elements that will facilitate implementation and sustain the desired image of planned change. Otherwise, resistance can lead to failure or to outcomes other than those desired by leadership. By engaging and embracing resistance, change agents can turn resistance into knowledge, and build from that knowledge toward the desired results.

Transforming Reactions to Change

In summary, change agents, leaders, and managers need to understand people's varied and individualized reactions to change and work with them. People react differently and very personally to change and need time to understand and revise their roles and participation in proposed change initiatives.

Effective change agents work to engage reactions to change, both positive and resistive. By recognizing and understanding positive reactions to change, leaders can clarify and align assumptions, motives, perceptions, and plans to ensure alignment going forward.

It is imperative to recognize that resistance to change is natural and that it is a positive and fateful catalyst to truly successful change efforts. Learning how to engage and embrace resistance is crucial in making change efforts work.

The energy people have in response to change is a powerful catalyst. Like a chemical catalyst, this energy can accelerate the reaction, without itself undergoing any change, particularly if positive reactions are misdirected or if resistance to change is not understood or ignored. But, like a chemical catalyst, reactions to change—when understood, engaged, and embraced—can provide a powerful stimulus that makes change happen and accelerates its success. In resistance, change agents can find the "miracle" of change: the resources, information, and energy to transform negative reactions into support and positive results.

Opinions expressed in Expert Commentary articles are those of the author and are not necessarily held by the author’s employer or IRMI. This article does not purport to provide legal, accounting, or other professional advice or opinion. If such advice is needed, consult with your attorney, accountant, or other qualified adviser.