Change Community of Practice Webinars

Change Fatigue: Causes and Cures

Presented by Catherine Smithson June 2016

Introducing Being Human • Founded in 1993 • Our mission: develop change-capable people and organisations so they achieve the benefits of change.

• 10th anniversary as Prosci’s Primary Affiliate in Australia and New Zealand.

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Agenda

• Why we need to address change fatigue

• Best practices update • Recognise the symptoms • Understand the causes • Reduce the risks • Your experiences?

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Why we need to address Change Fatigue 1.  Impact on people – physical

and mental health 2.  Impact on organisation’s

ability to attract and retain quality people

3.  Lasting impact on employee engagement and readiness for change

4.  Impact on results and benefits of change initiatives

5.  Impact on organisational results or even survival

6.  A barrier to creating a change ready, agile organisation

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Research update Prosci 2016 Best Practices in Change Management Benchmarking Report

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37% of participants indicated saturation was concentrated in localised

areas within the organisation and

Information Technology (IT) was the most saturated area.

About 42% of participants, an increase of 10% from 2014, said they actively manage

the portfolio of change, but about 45% do not

Industries above the global average include: •  Insurance •  Health Care •  Government – Fed •  Consumer Goods

Manufacturing •  Telecommunications •  Utilities •  Education Services •  Information Services •  Banking Australia/New Zealand

(83%) and United States (82%) were above the

global average for being near or at the point of

change saturation Still only 20% of

participants said there was a high level of

interest in managing the change portfolio

78% of participants identified being near or

past the point of saturation, up from 77% in 2014 and 73% in 2012

Quotable quotes

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“We’ve had wave after wave of change for years now... our people

are asking when things will get back to normal”.

“Our managers are saying there are too many number one priorities and they don’t

know what’s important”.

“Our project teams can’t get the right SMEs to contribute, people don’t want any more work on top

of their day job”.

“The volume of change around here is always

mentioned in exit interviews with staff who

have resigned”.

“On the one hand we invest heavily in building employee engagement but on the other hand we

undo the good work with creating change fatigue.”

Recognise the symptoms – individual level

• Employees, managers, executives can become: •  disengaged •  frustrated •  fatigued •  resistant •  confused •  cynical and skeptical

• All stages of the ADKAR® process of change are impacted

9 Source: Prosci Tutorial “Change saturation and the importance of establishing

and managing the portfolio of change” http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-saturation-white-paper.htm

Focus on the change professional •  We can burn out too! •  Can you recognise your own

change fatigue? •  Working harder/longer but

achieving less •  Frustration with individuals

and the organisation •  Taking on other people’s roles

to fill gap •  Style changes from coaching/

facilitation to lecturing and debating/standing on soapbox

•  How do you care for yourself? 10

Recognise the symptoms – project level • Change initiatives do not

realise benefits •  Lack of resources made

available to project teams from the business e.g. SMEs

• Delays, budget overruns, rework

• Project team staff turnover • Changes are not sustained • Others?

11 Source: Prosci Tutorial “Change saturation and the importance of establishing

and managing the portfolio of change” http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-saturation-white-paper.htm

Recognise the symptoms - organisational level

• Employee absenteeism •  Loss of valued employees/

managers/executives/project teams

• Difficulty recruiting talent – employment brand impacted

•  Low employee engagement

• Strategies and business objectives are not achieved/partially achieved

• Others? 12

Cause 1: Too much change •  “We don’t even know how

many changes we have underway”

•  The 101 Priorities Syndrome •  Lack of meaningful

prioritisation •  Changes not sequenced

effectively to balance the load •  Projects/activities not stopped •  Easy to say, hard to do:

•  At the centre of how Executives develop strategy and business planning

•  Only Executives can address it •  But they typically don’t

experience the effects

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Cause 2: Poorly managed change •  Inadequate Change

Management •  High risk, high impact

changes not identified or managed pro-actively •  Impacted groups not identified •  Not assessed for impact and

readiness •  People challenges of the

change not adequately understood or managed = increased risk

•  Change Sponsors and leaders at all levels lack change management capability, role clarity

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Cures: Top 5 tips 1.  Influence executives to

prioritize and sequence the change agenda

•  Work with the group/s with which you are most influential •  Executives – are you a trusted

advisor? •  PMO – Program Manager •  Project Manager/s and teams •  HR •  Managers

•  Choose carefully and be clear on your outcomes, messages and timing

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Cures: Top 5 tips • Get the facts and data that will influence Executives:

•  Connect with strategy and their goals and concerns •  Number of changes underway/by time/type/level/function/location •  Impacted groups – VS End users. “Who needs to adopt and use the

change for the expected benefits to be achieved?” •  Risk Assessment for each group for each change •  Collect examples and stories •  Suggested tools:

•  Prosci CMROI Calculator •  Heat Maps •  Prosci People Risk Assessment

•  Use preferred senders – PMO, PMs, managers -maybe not YOU •  What is your recommendation? What’s the WIIFM for your audience?

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Cures: Top 5 tips 2.  Move to managing the

change portfolio • Build support • Who will be the end user of

the outputs? •  Focus on the end goal and

the change in behaviour not the technology solution

• New tools - Ralleo cloud based enterprise management tool available from Being Human

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Cures: Top 5 tips 3.  Improve the

effectiveness of Change Management

•  Choose 1 or 2 key changes and let the results speak for themselves

•  Small gains = big wins

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Cures: Top 5 tips 4.  Support managers to re-energise themselves and

their teams •  Clear priorities, constantly reiterated and demonstrated •  Recognition of good work, towards the change and in the past •  Feeling valued or treated respectfully •  Listen to and encourage team members •  Clarify when managers and teams can contribute to decisions •  Having pride in their organisation - even when the change is in response

to a difficult situation •  Clear, short communication, especially about progress

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Cures: Top 5 tips 5.  Build resilience among

managers and teams •  Change is here to stay •  What can we do to become

more resilient and support each other?

•  Enlist HR/L&D/HR professionals

•  Resilience Workshops available from Being Human

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Resources

• Ralleo Enterprise Change Management tool – contact us

• www.prosci.portal.com • Prosci CMROI

Calculator • Prosci PCT Analyzer • ADKAR® Dashboard

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More info

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