Two Ways to Help Your Employees During Change

Any time the status quo is threatened; there is a reaction…usually negative.

Typically when you announce an organizational change initiative, everyone worries about how it will affect them…usually, they assume, for the worse.

But change management consulting best practices give you a couple of ways that you can ease your employees’ fear of the unknown:

1. Create a forum where concerns about the future can be raised…safely and without judgment. Listen with empathy, answer truthfully and with as many facts as you can. Acknowledge that change carries some risk but, if you have made the decision for change carefully, you can persuade worriers that not changing is a greater threat to the future of the organization than your proposed transformation.
2. Stand up for your team. When there is competition for resources, do your best to see that your team members get what they need. Do not flinch from standing up for them as they struggle through the muck of change. They need to know that you are fighting for them, not against them.