Change management: Motivation

Keeping workers motivated when a company goes through a major business change is a challenge. There are many factors to juggle. Tinkering in one area may unbalance matters elsewhere. Workers worry about losing control during change.

And then there's uncertainty.

Each person has an uncertainty threshold. Your threshold may be high; someone else may have a lower threshold. When extra uncertainty pushes people above their threshold, they feel uncomfortable.

Most workers – particularly those in knowledge-based industries – take everyday uncertainty in their stride. External events, like a terrorist attack or economic downturn lift background uncertainty levels and reduce people’s capacity to deal with workplace uncertainty. Yet most workers cope well during normal times.

Instability

What we once knew as normal times are now fewer and further between. Even so, when a business goes through change, uncertainty levels rise dramatically. You can rest assured change will push a lot of people over their uncertainty threshold.

The first reaction of workers pushed over their uncertainty threshold is to redress the balance and look for certainty. This is understandable. What happens next is a simple knee jerk reaction to resist further change.

Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter describes this as the “Walking off a cliff blindfolded problem”: for many people change looks too dangerous. They prefer to stay with the devil they know than commit to the devil they don’t know.

Worker communication

Not surprisingly managers have little trouble understanding how to deal with this problem, they open up lines of communication to the workforce to articulate the plans for change.

Large organisations hire communications professionals or even PR companies to help. I’ve seen staff meetings, PowerPoint presentations, company newsletters, glossy magazines and fancy videos used. Twenty years ago I briefly edited a weekly tabloid newspaper designed to sell a major corporate change programme to employees so I know this from the inside.

Communications can fall flat for three reasons.

1. No amount of spin can sugar a frightening message. If an organisation plans to layoff workers – words aren’t going to help.
   People aren’t stupid – that’s why you hired them. They recognise official flim-flam when they see it. Anyone with sense will either be preparing their own escape route or doing all they can to stall the kind of change which will destroy their job.
2. Internal company propaganda lacks credibility. Many of us have worked in corporations where, if the message coming down from high is “don’t worry yours jobs are safe” know the real story is sackings are coming.
   Ultimately it is about trust, but it is also about common sense – if you work for a company that hypes its products to customers, you might well be wary of internal communications.
   Another credibility point is corporate propaganda is more about selling the benefits of change than outlining the process. Employees need information – this is distinctly different from the kind of material most companies produce.
   People want to know exactly what will happen, which departments will close, which jobs are moving to Tasmania, who is redesignated and so on. Feeding them motherhood statements might make you feel important, nobody else will fall for it.
3. Communication fails when senior managers forget it is a two-way street. There’s little point in articulating a vision if you don’t listen to people’s legitimate fears and deal with them.

The best way for senior managers to communicate is in person – even in a large organisation.

And it's not just about words, it’s also about action. Leaders – remember that word? – lead from the front.

If there’s a cliff to leap off, workers will be much more willing to leap if they are following their managers.