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February 8, 2013

Embracing the Inevitable Changes at Work

Change in the workplace is inevitable.  As a leader, helping your employees understand why the change is occurring and how it directly affects their position helps to weaken negative attitudes toward foreseeable change.
Change promotes feelings of apprehension and anxiety.  It can also be exhilarating and frightening. The feelings or experience you receive from change rely on how you manage your own personal transition, your own way at your own pace.  Supplying your staff with proper training for managing change is essential for understanding and accepting.
These online courses on managing change offer realistic techniques in making transitioning easier.  The courses, “Three Steps to Managing Change,” Three Steps to Managing Change, Healthcare Version,” and “Strategies for Embracing Change,” depict realistic workplace scenarios and methods for dealing with transitions and change.
Three steps these courses include for managing change are:

  1. The Ending Stage; during this stage we must let-go of the “old ways” of doing things as well as clarify what is really ending and what we are actually likely to lose.
  2. The Neutral Zone; in this stage we must accept ambiguity but not let ourselves become paralyzed by uncertainty, including the willingness to experiment.
  3. The Beginning State; this is where a firm ground begins to take place.  Where we are able to accommodate change and behave as if there are no barriers.

The reaction toward change depends on how we choose to transition into the change.  An article from T&D magazine, written by Peter Barber, “Managing Change at Work,”  suggests actions to take during different phases of an approaching change.  These phases include; hearing the news, the timing of change, and different stages of change.  Barber also reiterates the importance of helping employees understand that change is not the enemy.  Teams will flourish once they understand the importance of embracing and accommodating inevitable changes.
 

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