How we react to change
We react in more or less the same way when faced with changes. However, there’s a difference in how strongly we react. Among other things, this has to do with what impact the change has. The typical phases when reacting to change include:
- Surprise. You may feel that the change is not what you expected.
- Denial. You carry on with old habits and routines pretending that nothing has changed.
- Resistance. You oppose and try to resist the new reality.
- Acceptance. You acknowledge the need for change and let go of old behaviours.
- Personal understanding. The change starts to make sense to you.
- Integration. The change becomes the ‘new normal’.
Our individual reactions to change can be linked to:
- Whether we see the change as beneficial or harmful to ourselves, and whether we can apply our competences.
- How the change is being implemented: Has there been sufficient information? Are managers and colleagues offering the necessary support?
How we react can also be linked to personal factors. Some people prefer fixed routines and plans, while others prefer to work under more flexible conditions.
Resistance to change
It can be difficult to get everyone onboard the change process. This is a natural reaction to something unexpected, unknown or something that’s difficult to immediately understand.
Visible signs of resistance to change could be silence at meetings, gossiping, reduced work pace or increased sickness absence. Signs at individual level include complaining to colleagues or to management and objecting to the change.
Resistance can also be linked to the performance of work, employees’ personal situation or social relationships.
Some may experience the change as a real threat, for example of losing influence and position, having to carry out more tasks, or not being able to deal with new tasks and consequently losing one’s job.
But there are also positive reactions to change, for example feeling the change is needed, that it will lead to improvements, and that everyone – the individual, the group and management – has what it takes to implement the change.