A NEWSLETTER FROM HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING ARTICLE REPRINT NO.

U0812C

Helping Employees Cope with

Change in an Anxious Era
by Lauren Keller Johnson

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Helping Employees Cope with Change in an Anxious Era
When times are tough, change is even tougher.
by Lauren Keller Johnson
O
rganizational change initiatives trigger anxiety
across the corporate hierarchy even in the best
of times. But in an era where a storied firm
like Lehman Brothers can go bankrupt almost
overnight and the Dow’s fluctuations can make you dizzy,
change initiatives can elicit fear, even panic.
In such times, calls to change can also provoke
especially intense resistance. When uncertainty is such
a prominent—and threatening—feature on the external
landscape, people crave constancy and routine inside
their organizations.
Of course, it’s when economic conditions are most
unstable that companies most often need to change, and
change quickly, if they are to survive.
Managers, then, face a daunting task. To help their
organizations weather a downturn, they need to ensure
that employees fully buy into change initiatives and make
the necessary alterations in their day-to-day behavior—at
precisely the same time their employees are likely to be
most anxious about, and resistant to, change.
Large-scale change initiatives, such as mergers or
restructurings, aren’t alone in eliciting strong responses.
In an anxious era, even more modest initiatives, such as
the adoption of a new IT system or a sharper focus on
product innovation, can push distressing emotions to
paralyzing levels.
THE FIVE PHASES OF CHANGE
Helping employees support change—of whatever scope—
starts with understanding the five phases of a change
initiative and the emotions each phase typically provokes,
says Jeanie Daniel Duck, a former senior partner of the
Boston Consulting Group and author of The Change
Monster: The Human Forces That Fuel or Foil Corporate
Transformation and Change (Three Rivers Press, 2002):
1. Stagnation. Signs of trouble emerge: falling sales or
stock price, customer defections, difficulty attracting
talent. Those in the organization who are aware that
things can’t go on like this begin to push for change.
Others go into denial. They declare that everything’s
on track and bristle at suggestions to the contrary.
2. Preparation. Leaders decide to make a change and
announce the decision. Managers’ and employees’
emotions range from fear (“Will I still have my
Copyright © 2008 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
job?”) to relief (“Thank goodness somebody’s doing
something!”) to excitement (“Let’s get going!”).
3. Implementation. Leaders announce new assign-
ments, define new reporting lines, or mandate new
processes. In addition to feelings of threat, fear, and
uncertainty, people may experience confusion, apathy,
resentment, worries about inadequacy, or exhilaration.
Some feel a surreal sense of living simultaneously
in two worlds, as they grapple with the current state
while striving to build the new, desired state.
4. Determination. Some things seem different, but the
changes haven’t taken root yet. Working with new
bosses, new rules, and/or new processes, people are
confused. They make mistakes that can slow down
the change process. Naysayers boast, “I told you it
wouldn’t work.” The change initiative is at its most
vulnerable point during this stage.
5. Fruition. Ideally, all the hard work starts showing
tangible results: rising stock price or sales, increased
efficiency and lower costs, promising new products,
more customers. Emotions include confidence,
optimism, and energy. But leaders take note:
individuals’ satisfaction with outcomes may become
complacency that can stand in the way of future
change.
MOVING FROM ANXIETY AND RESISTANCE
TO HOPE AND ACTION
Duck offers these suggestions for assuaging employees’
anxiety, getting through their resistance, and sparking
their hope and energetic buy-in:
Interpret events for employees.
Duck says the most powerful thing you as a manager can
do is to “interpret what’s going on for people and explain
what it means for them in specific, concrete terms.”
For example, last year Duck worked with an insurance
company seeking to rein in costs in order to remain
competitive as the market wobbled. Employees began
crumbling under a crush of media reports about the
firm’s seesawing performance and the forces buffeting the
insurance industry as a whole.
As anxiety intensified throughout the ranks, Duck
Change in an Anxious Era continued

And whenever you can, explain the rationale behind

FOUR WAYS TO ESCALATE ANXIETY
Sometimes well-meaning managers inadvertently escalate
change-related anxiety to paralyzing levels in their teams.
Here are some surefire ways to get pulses racing and rumors
swirling:
1. MANDATE A CHANGE WITHOUT EXPLAINING WHY
IT’S NEEDED
If people can’t see the business case for the proposed
change, they feel they’re at the mercy of inexplicable forces.
And that’s enough to make anyone anxious.
decisions that will affect your team. In fact, whenever
you see a chance to lessen uncertainty and increase
understanding, take it. Uncertainty feeds anxiety;
knowledge calms it.
Acknowledge the emotional maelstrom.
Throughout the change process, accept that people can
experience wildly conflicting emotions at every stage.
Even within one individual, sadness over abandoning
long-held ways of doing business may compete with
excitement about a new and possibly better direction for
the firm.

2. ASSUME THAT PEOPLE AUTOMATICALLY UNDER-

STAND WHAT YOU WANT FROM THEM In an anxious era even modest workplace
Make sure you spell out, in practical terms, how you’d like
changes can elicit strong responses. Explain
them to do things differently. If you don’t clarify your expec-
tations, people can’t know how to meet them. to your team when and how they’ll get
information on changes. Whenever you can,
3. HUDDLE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
If you spend most of the time in closed-door meetings and explain the rationale behind decisions that
mete out only rare communications about the change, peo- will affect your team.
ple will assume the worst. And then they’ll share their dire
speculations with their coworkers. Before too long, everyone
will be spending half the day looking for another job and
Let people know that such a maelstrom of emotions is
almost no time forwarding the change initiative. normal, and that people who experience this phenomenon
are not less talented or less valued because of it, advises
4. NEGLECT TO DEAL WITH YOUR OWN ANXIETY Duck.
When employees are anxious, they look to their leaders for
cues. If you radiate anxiety or fear, your employees will pick Stay connected.
up on it. Find a confidant you can vent to, so you can keep “Even today,” says Duck, “some senior managers make
any uncertainty or fear you feel from infecting others. only rare appearances in their organizations.” That’s a
recipe for disaster when a company is making a change
during tough times.
suggested that company leaders ease tensions by
“This is no time for managers to be remote,” says Duck.
explaining to employees what the news reports meant for
“No matter how busy you are, carve out time to eat lunch
them. The leaders told the workforce: “We can’t predict
in the cafeteria, answer people’s questions, and gather
the future because the market is just too volatile. We do
information on how people are handling the change.”
know that we’ll need to cut expenses, but we’re not going
This will help you find out where resistance is brewing
to have a layoff.”
before it boils over.
In addition to laying out the plan in clear terms, let
Make connectedness and communication imper-
employees know how you intend to update them as the
atives for the managers who report to you. One senior
change initiative unfolds. Will you call a special meeting
manager Duck worked with based 50% of each manager’s
each week to update them on the change? Send out a
bonus on communication effectiveness. Performance on
weekly e-mail?
this criterion was assessed through metrics such as how
“Tell people when and how they’ll get information
promptly and frequently managers updated employees on
on what’s going to change,” advises Duck. “People need
the change program and how well employees understood
reassurance that their leaders are actively involved in
expectations.
the change, that they know what they’re doing, and that
expectations will be made clear.”

4 HARVARD MANAGEMENT UPDATE | DECEMBER 2008

Change in an Anxious Era continued

If there’s any silver lining in the dark cloud now hanging

over the economy, notes Duck, it’s that we’re facing an
equal-opportunity situation. No industry or organization
is disproportionately affected. And all companies have
the same opportunity to reinvent themselves in the face
of immense challenge.
By shepherding your team through the emotional ups
and downs of needed change initiatives, you help them
build a track record of success that can sustain them
during future change. As Duck points out, “Confidence is
success remembered.” ‹

Lauren Keller Johnson is a Massachusetts-based business

writer. Reach her at MUOpinion@harvardbusiness.org.

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