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Social and Human Factors: Reactions to Change

E x c e r p t e d f r o m

Managing Change and Transition

Harvard Business School Press Boston, Massachusetts

ISBN-10: 1-4221-0715-9 ISBN-13: 978-1-4221-0715-7

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This chapter was originally published as chapter 5 of Managing Change and Transition, copyright 2003 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.

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Social and Human Factors

Key Topics Covered in This Chapter

• The rank and file, and how they respond to change

• Change resisters, and how to deal with them

• Change agents—the people who can make things happen

Reactions to Change

5

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O r g a n i z at i o n s are inherently social systems. Thepeople in these systems have identities, relationships,communities, attitudes, emotions, and differentiated powers. So when you try to change any part of the system, all of these factors come into play, adding many layers of complexity to a change process. Successful management of change requires that you recognize the primacy of people factors and the social systems in which they operate.

The rank and file, the resisters, and the change agents are the three sets of players typically encountered in a change initiative. Each has unique characteristics, and each requires a different style of management.

The Rank and File

If you’ve spent much time observing life in the forest, you’ve proba- bly noticed how animals establish routines. Deer, for example, create paths between their daytime sleeping areas and the streams, fields, and meadows where they look for food and water after dark. They stick to those paths as long as they are safe and offer few impediments to movement.

People also develop routines.Think about your own routine on a typical Saturday morning. Sleep until 8. Start a load of laundry. Cook the nice breakfast you never have time to make during the week. Pay the week’s bills.Take the dog for a walk to the park. Chances are that

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you have routines at work as well. Like the woodland deer, people follow trails that are familiar, comfortable, safe, and satisfying. And they aren’t eager to change unless given compelling reasons to do so. People also have “social routines” at work—associations with coworkers that satisfy their needs as social animals—and changes that impinge on those routines are equally unwelcome.

Occasional diversions from routines and existing social patterns add variety and interest—which please us. But diversions may also create tension, anxiety, discomfort, and even fear. As the late long- shoreman-philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote in The Ordeal of Change: “It is my impression that no one really likes the new. We are afraid of it.” He notes that even small changes from the routine can be upsetting.

Back in 1936 I spent a good part of the year picking peas. I started out early in January in the Imperial Valley [of California] and drifted north- ward, picking peas as they ripened, until I picked the last peas of the season in June, around Tracy.Then I shifted all the way to Lake County, where for the first time I was going to pick string beans.And I still re- member how hesitant I was that first morning as I was about to address myself to the string bean vines.Would I be able to pick string beans? Even the change from peas to string beans had in it elements of fear.

In the case of drastic change the uneasiness is of course deeper and more lasting.We can never be really prepared for that which is wholly new.We have to adjust ourselves and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. It needs in- ordinate self-confidence to face drastic change without inner trembling.1

Certainly no two people feel the same “trembling” described by Hoffer. And some individuals are absolutely energized by change. The Myers-Briggs personality framework addresses this broad spec- trum. At one end of the spectrum, for example, it describes a person who likes a planned and organized approach to life (a “judging” per- son). He or she likes things settled.At the other end of the spectrum is the “perceiving” person who prefers open options and a flexible and spontaneous approach to life.2 You probably have people repre- senting both types in your organization, and as a manager, you need to learn to deal with the full range of personalities. In particular:

Social and Human Factors 3

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• Think about the people who will participate in your change initiative.Who will react negatively to having their routines disrupted, and who will positively enjoy the experience? Make a list.

• Once you’ve identified people likely to be uncomfortable with change, think about their roles in the change initiative.They probably aren’t the ones you’ll want in key positions where ini- tiative and enthusiasm are needed.Think, too, about how these individuals can be helped through the process.

• For individuals with pro-change dispositions, consider ways to optimize the energy they bring to the program, and how they can work with others.

And don’t forget about yourself. Like everyone else you have a unique disposition to change. You either love it, hate it, or (more likely) you’re somewhere between those extremes.

Discovery Learning, Inc. of Greensboro, North Carolina, has de- veloped a helpful methodology for measuring an individual’s dispo- sition to change, indicating where that person is likely to fall on a “preferred style” continuum.3 In their model, “Conservers” occupy one end of the continuum. Conservers are people who prefer current circumstances over the unknown—people who are more comfort- able with gradual change than with anything radical. Occupying the opposite end of the spectrum are the “Originators,” who prefer more rapid and radical change.“Originators are representative of the reengi- neering approach to change,” according to Discovery Learning.“The goal of an Originator is to challenge existing structure, resulting in fast, fundamentally different, even systemic changes.”4 Occupying a middle position between these two extremes are the “Pragmatists” who support change when it clearly addresses current challenges. Pragmatists are less wedded to the existing structure than to structures that are likely to be successful. (See “Change Style Characteristics” for more on how Discovery Learning generalizes the characteristics of people who represent these three change style preferences.)

4 Managing Change and Transition

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Social and Human Factors 5

When Facing Change, Conservers:

• Generally appear deliberate, disciplined, and organized

• Prefer change that maintains current structure

• May operate from conventional assumptions

• Enjoy predictability

• May appear cautious and inflexible

• May focus on details and the routine

• Honor tradition and established practice

When Facing Change, Pragmatists:

• May appear practical, agreeable, flexible

• Prefer change that emphasizes workable outcomes

• Are more focused on results than structure

• Operate as mediators and catalysts for understanding

• Are open to both sides of an argument

• May take more of a middle-of-the-road approach

• Appear more team-oriented

When Facing Change, Originators:

• May appear unorganized, undisciplined, unconventional, and spontaneous

• Prefer change that challenges current structure

Change Style Characteristics

Continued

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Knowing where your coworkers stand—and where you stand— in a change preference continuum such as this one can help you be more effective in managing the people side of a change initiative.

The Resisters

“The reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order,” Machiavelli warned his readers. And what held true in sixteenth- century Italy remains true today. Some people clearly enjoy advan- tages that—rightly or wrongly—they view as threatened by change. They may perceive change as endangering their livelihoods, their perks, their workplace social arrangements, or their status in the or- ganization. Others know that their specialized skills will be rendered less valuable. For example, when a supplier of automotive hydraulic steering systems switched in the late 1990s to electronic steering technology, employees with expertise in hoses, valves, and fluid pres- sure were suddenly less important. The know-how they had devel- oped over long careers was suddenly less valuable for the company.

Any time people perceive themselves as losers in a change initia- tive, expect resistance. Resistance may be passive, in the form of non- commitment to the goals and the process for reaching them, or active, in the form of direct opposition or subversion. How will you deal with that resistance?

6 Managing Change and Transition

• Will likely challenge accepted assumptions

• Enjoy risk and uncertainty

• May be impractical and miss important details

• May appear as visionary and systemic in their thinking

• Can treat accepted policies and procedures with little regard

source:–W. Christopher Musselwhite and Robyn Ingram, Change Style Indicator (Greensboro, NC:The Discovery Learning Press, 1999), 5–7. Used with permission.

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Change masters have dealt with resisters in different ways over the years. French revolutionaries used the guillotine.The Bolsheviks had resisters shot or packed off to the gulags. Mao and his commu- nist followers sent them to “reeducation” camps. Employment laws have removed these proven techniques from the corporate change master’s tool kit, but there are other things you can do.You can begin by identifying potential resisters and try to redirect them. Here’s where you can start:

• Always try to answer the question,“Where and how will change create pain or loss in the organization?”

• Identify people who have something to lose, and try to antici- pate how they will respond.

• Communicate the “why” of change to potential resisters. Ex- plain the urgency of moving away from established routines or arrangements.

• Emphasize the benefits of change to potential resisters.Those benefits might be greater future job security, higher pay, and so forth.There’s no guarantee that the benefits of change will ex- ceed the losses for these individuals. However, explaining the benefits will help shift their focus from negatives to positives.

• Help resisters find new roles—roles that represent genuine con- tributions and mitigate their losses.

• Remember that many people resist change because it represents a loss of control over their daily lives.You can return some of that control by making them active partners in the change program.

If these interventions fail, move resisters out of your unit.You can- not afford to let a few disgruntled individuals subvert the progress of the entire group. But don’t make them “walk the plank.” Do what you can to relocate them to positions where their particular skills can be better used. That’s what the innovator of electronic steering systems did.That company still had plenty of business supplying hy- draulic systems to car and truck manufacturers, so it employed its

Social and Human Factors 7

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hydraulic specialists in those units even as it hired electronic engi- neers for its expanding new business.

As you consider resisters, don’t forget that your own approach to initiating or managing change may be contributing to the problem. We noted in the previous chapter that “technical” solutions imposed from the outside often breed resistance because they fail to recognize the social dimension of work. Paul Lawrence made this point many years ago in his classic Harvard Business Review article “How to Deal With Resistance to Change.”5 In looking at interrelationships among employees Lawrence found that change originating among employ- ees who work closely together is usually implemented smoothly. But change imposed by outsiders threatens powerful social bonds, gener- ating resentment and resistance. So be sure to evaluate what part you may be playing in the resistance problem.

Dealing with Passive Resisters

Earlier, we described passive resistance to change as noncommitment to goals and the process for reaching them. Passive resisters frustrate managers. While they don’t sabotage the program, they certainly don’t help the initiative move forward.

The reason that a person won’t change, explain psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, is that he or she has a “compet- ing commitment”—a subconscious, hidden goal that conflicts with the stated commitment.6 For example, a project leader who is dragging his feet may have an unrecognized competing commitment to avoid tougher assignments that may come his way if he’s too successful with the current project. A supervisor who cannot seem to get on board with the new team-based approach to problem-solving may be worried that she will be seen as incompetent if she cannot solve problems herself.

Though competing commitments are likely to be lodged deep in an employee’s psyche, some serious probing on your part can sometimes get them to the surface, where you and the employee can deal with them.The most practical advice here is to engage in one- on-one communication with the passive resister. You need to find out what’s keeping this person from participating in an active way.

8 Managing Change and Transition

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The Change Agents

Think for a moment about the big, big changes in the world over the centuries. Chances are that you can associate individuals with each of those changes. Copernicus and Galileo ultimately changed our view of where we stand relative to our neighbors in the solar system. Mar- tin Luther split Christendom in two and contributed indirectly to the rise of nation states in Europe. Charles Darwin’s theory on natural se- lection torpedoed the accepted wisdom on humankind’s history. Karl Marx,a thinker, and Vladimir Lenin,a doer,created a communist move- ment that, at its apex, held sway over almost half the world. Henry Ford and his engineers developed a new approach to manufactur- ing—the assembly line—that fundamentally altered the auto indus- try and many other industries. In each of these cases, someone who thought differently had a major impact on human history. None began with serious resources or backing, all were outsiders, and all faced substantial opposition.All were what we call change agents.

Change agents are catalysts who get the ball rolling, even if they do not necessarily do most of the pushing. Everett Rogers described them as figures with one foot in the old world and one in the new— creators of a bridge across which others can travel.7 They help others to see what the problems are, and convince them to grapple with them. Change agents, in his view, fulfill critical roles.They:

• articulate the need for change;

• are accepted by others as trustworthy and competent (people must accept the messenger before they accept the message);

• see and diagnose problems from the perspective of their audience;

• motivate people to change;

• work through others in translating intent into action;

• stabilize the adoption of innovation; and

• foster self-renewing behavior in others so that they can “go out of business” as change agents.

Social and Human Factors 9

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Who in your organization has these characteristics? Are you one of them? It is important to identify the change agents so that you can place them in key positions during a change effort. In a self-regenerating company, you’ll find change agents in many differ- ent operating units and at all different levels. (See “Tips for Identify- ing Change Agents” for more information.)

Can change agents be created? Perhaps. One German electronics firm did so in the 1990s when it faced poor financial performance, sagging morale, and weak competitiveness.The company was over- consulted and under-managed.Many of its best young employees were unhappy with consecutive years of losses and dimming prospects.The company’s rigid corporate hierarchy was partly to blame. Management recognized that it had to distribute authority and decision making more broadly. To accomplish this it created a change agent program that sent two dozen hand-picked employees to the United States for special training, which included abundant exposure to entrepreneurial American firms. Once the training program was completed, the newly minted change agents were transferred back to their units, where they worked to break the mold of the old hierarchical system.

General Motors attempted something very similar in its joint venture with Toyota: the NUMMI small car assembly plant in Cali- fornia. That plant was run according to Toyota’s world-beating production methods, and GM rotated manufacturing managers through the plant to learn Toyota’s methods and, hopefully, bring a working knowledge of those methods back to Detroit. As described earlier, furniture maker Herman Miller sought the same result when it moved managers from its SQA unit into its traditional operating units; it figured that these individuals would infect others with their faster, more accurate approach to manufacturing and fulfillment.

Your search for change agents shouldn’t necessarily be limited to company personnel. Every so often it’s wise to look outside for people who have the skills and attitudes required to stir things up and get the organization moving in a new and more promising di- rection. This approach is not without risk, since the outsider’s lack of familiarity with the company’s culture may result in unforeseen turmoil. For a discussion of this issue, see “The Insider-Outsider as Change Agent” and its Harvard Business Review excerpt.

10 Managing Change and Transition

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Social and Human Factors 11

• Find out who people listen to. Change agents lead with the power of their ideas. But be warned:These may not be em- ployees with formal authority to lead.

• Be alert to people who “think otherwise.” Change agents are not satisfied with things as they are—a fact that may not en- dear them to management.

• Take a close look at new employees who have come from outside the circle of traditional competitors.They may not be infected with the same mind-set as everyone else.

• Look for people with unusual training or experience. For ex- ample, if all your marketing people have business degrees and heavy quantitative research backgrounds, look for the oddball liberal arts major who has a degree in social anthropology. Chances are she sees the world through a different lens.

Tips for Identifying Change Agents

Many companies feel that the only way to create change and make it stick is to bring in outsiders with no ties to the status quo. Others fear that outsiders who don’t understand the busi- ness, its culture, and its values will simply create disruption. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Donald Sull recom- mends that leadership for change be invested in individuals who represent both sides of the coin: a fresh perspective on the busi- ness and a solid appreciation for the company’s culture.

Guiding a company through big changes requires a difficult balancing act.The company’s heritage has to be respected even as it’s being resis- ted. It’s often assumed that outsider managers are best suited to lead such an effort since they’re not bound by the company’s historical

The Insider-Outsider as Change Agent

Continued

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12 Managing Change and Transition

formula. . . .Typically, outsiders are so quick to throw out all the old ways of working that they end up doing more harm than good.

The approach I recommend is to look for new leaders from within the company but from outside the core business. These managers, whom I call inside-outsiders,can be drawn from the company’s smaller divisions, from international operations, or from staff functions. . . .

Insider-outsiders have led many of the most dramatic corporate transformations in recent times. Jack Welch spent most of his career in GE’s plastics business; Jürgen Schrempp was posted in South Africa before returning to run [DaimlerChrysler]; and Domenico De Sole served as the Gucci Group’s legal counsel before leading that company’s dramatic rejuvenation.

Another alternative is to assemble management teams that lever- age the strengths of both insiders and outsiders.When [Lou] Gerst- ner took over at IBM, he didn’t force out all the old guard. Most operating positions continued to be staffed by IBM veterans with decades of experience, but they were supported by outsiders in key staff slots and marketing roles.The combination of perspectives has allowed IBM to use old strengths to fuel its passage down an en- tirely new course.

Finally, inside managers can break free of their old formulas by imagining themselves as outsiders, as Intel’s executives did in decid- ing to abandon the memory business. Intel had pioneered the market for memory chips, and for most of its executives, employees, and cus- tomers, Intel meant memory. As new competitors entered the market, however, Intel saw its share of the memory business dwindle. . . .

Although Intel had built an attractive microprocessor business during this time, it clung to the memory business until its chairman, Gordon Moore, and its president, Andy Grove, sat down and de- liberately imagined what would happen if they were replaced with outsiders.They agreed that outsiders would get out of the memory business—and that’s exactly what Moore and Grove did.While a company’s competitive formula exerts a tremendous gravitational pull, thinking like outsiders can help insiders to break free.a

a–Donald N. Sull, “Why Good Companies Go Bad,” Harvard Business Review 77, no. 4 ( July–August 1999): 50.

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Summing Up

Change is complicated by the fact that organizations are social sys- tems whose participants have identities, relationships, communities, routines, emotions, and differentiated powers. Thus managers must be alert to how a change will conflict with existing social systems and individual routines.

This chapter explored the three identity categories that employ- ees typically fall into:

• The rank and file is likely to include people who exhibit a spectrum of reactions to change. This chapter adopted the terms “con- servers,”“pragmatists,” and “originators” to describe how differ- ent people respond to change. Knowing where your coworkers stand—and where you stand—in a change preference continuum such as this one can help you be more effective in managing the people side of a change initiative.

• Change resisters will either drag their feet or actively attempt to undermine your efforts. You can identify potential resisters by determining where and how change will create pain or loss in the organization. Once you’ve identified them, there are several things you can do to neutralize their resistance or make them active par- ticipants.These include: explaining the urgent need to change, de- scribing how change will produce benefits for them, and finding new ways in which they can contribute. People who do not re- spond to these efforts should be moved out of your unit.

• Change agents see the need for change and articulate it effectively to others. They are critical catalysts for a change initiative and should be placed in key positions.This chapter has provided tips for identifying change agents.

Social and Human Factors 13

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Chapter 5

1.–Eric Hoffer, The Ordeal of Change (Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books, 1976), 3.

2.–See the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.

3.–See W. Christopher Musselwhite and Robyn Ingram, Change Style Indicator (Greensboro, NC:The Discovery Learning Press, 1999).

4.–Ibid., 4. 5.–Paul R. Lawrence, “How to Deal With Resistance to Change,” Har-

vard Business Review XLVII ( January–February 1969): 4–12, 166–176. 6.–Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, “The Real Reason People

Won’t Change,” Harvard Business Review 79, no. 10 (November 2001): 84–92.

7.–Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovation, 3rd ed. (New York: The Free Press, 1983) 315–316.

14

Notes

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Marketer’s Toolkit Negotiation

Power, Influence, and Persuasion Strategy

Time Management

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