Welcome to the Intersection of Change and Emotion

As a project management professional, you’ve undoubtedly faced the frustration of seeing your change efforts spark initial enthusiasm, only to watch results gradually drift back to the status quo. It feels like you’re constantly pushing and pushing, with progress slipping away the moment you ease up. Sound familiar? Let’s explore how to make your change efforts stick for the long haul.

Sustained Change Happens Through Sustained Beliefs

To achieve lasting change, we must focus on the beliefs that underpin our actions. When people truly believe in the necessity and benefits of change, their actions will reflect those beliefs consistently, even in your absence. Here are three tips to help your next change initiative become stickier.

Three "Sticky" Tips To Help You Sustain Change Adoption

Sticky Tip #1: Define Beliefs or Thoughts Required to Sustain the Change

Start by identifying the core beliefs necessary to support the change. These beliefs should tie into your organization’s existing value system to ensure they resonate deeply.

For example, if you’re implementing new software aimed at boosting efficiency, nurture the belief that “this software will enable higher efficiency.” Provide concrete evidence to back this up—share case studies, success stories from other departments, and data showing time saved or errors reduced.

Example: If your organization values innovation, frame the software as a cutting-edge tool that embodies the company’s innovative spirit. Present data from pilot projects or testimonials from early adopters within the team to reinforce this belief.

Sticky Tip #2: Define the Actions Those Thoughts Manifest and Role-Model Them

Beliefs drive actions. Once you’ve defined the necessary beliefs, outline the specific actions that will manifest from these thoughts. Then, role-model these actions consistently.

If the belief is that new software increases efficiency, the actions might include regularly using the software, sharing tips on how to use it effectively, and celebrating small wins achieved through its use.

Example: As a leader, demonstrate your commitment by using the software yourself and sharing your experiences. Encourage team members to do the same and highlight their successes in team meetings.

Sticky Tip #3: Never Underestimate the Power of Consistency

Consistency is crucial in moving from transition to steady-state. It’s not enough to push for change initially; you must reinforce the new behaviors until they become the norm. Brands build their identity through consistent messaging and actions—your change efforts should follow the same principle.

Example: Think of a brand like Coca-Cola, which consistently reinforces its message of happiness and refreshment through every touchpoint. Similarly, ensure that every communication, action, and decision aligns with the new way of working. Over time, this consistency will solidify the change in your organization’s culture.

Conclusion

Making change stick requires more than just initial enthusiasm—it demands a strategic focus on sustaining the beliefs that drive new behaviors. By defining and nurturing the necessary beliefs, role-modeling the resulting actions, and maintaining unwavering consistency, you can transform fleeting wins into lasting success.

Remember, sustained change happens through sustained beliefs. Let’s make your change efforts stickier and more impactful.

By following these tips, you can enhance the longevity and effectiveness of your change initiatives, ensuring that your hard work leads to lasting improvements within your organization

Change fatigue is real and likely being experienced by many within your team or organization and perhaps even yourself. So as a leader and Project Management professional, how can you help your teams overcome change fatigue? I’ve got six effective and easily accessible tips to help.

In this blog, you’re going to first develop a better understanding of the dynamics at play which cause and sustain change fatigue. Then I’m going to guide you through three major ways you can help those in your workforce overcome change fatigue with helpful, action-oriented tips along the way. Given the rapid pace at which our world is changing, this is perhaps one of the most important and meaningful pieces I’ve shared yet.

Understanding the Cost of Change on the Individual

Leading and executing change in the workplace is imperative today. Not only are there costs to the business when doing so (consultants, technology integration, equipment/robotics, hiring new resources, etc.) but there are also costs to every individual in the workforce having to bring the change to life: their physical, mental, and emotional energy. The greater these costs climb, the greater the risk of change fatigue.

You can overcome change fatigue for yourself and your people in three major ways: (1) reduce the costs, (2) offset the costs, and (3) mitigate the impact of spent costs.  Let's walk through each as well as a few practical tips to bring it all to life.

Strategies and Tips to Overcome Change Fatigue

Reduce the Costs – By this, I mean, lead the business in a way that balances internal and external pressures for growth with the costs required of every individual in the organization to successfully manage change.

• Practical Tip #1:  Streamline priorities to minimize the waves of change experienced by the workforce. Would you rather your workforce execute your top three change imperatives with excellence and rigor or your top ten with mediocrity and marginal success?

• Practical Tip #2:  Strategically execute change based on workforce capability and readiness. Your strategy can also include segmenting the workforce being affected by a given change initiative.  Give the highest change cost to that segment of the workforce with the highest capability and readiness rating.

Offset the Costs – In practice, this looks like offsetting the costs of executing change with clearly established and communicated gains for the individuals responsible for making it happen.

• Practical Tip #3:  Drive change with purpose, clearly communicating the 'why' and 'why now' behind the change.  The gain or offset for the individual is knowing that their work, their effort, the costs they're expending are being used to move a purpose or mission forward that they truly believe in.

• Practical Tip #4:  Create healthy incentives.  The gain or offset here could be monetary, influence, or personal development-related.  This helps create the 'what's in it for me' narrative.

Mitigate the Impact of Spent Costs – This is where your mind might have gone at the start thinking about helping others overcome change fatigue. They are the efforts you can lead to help mitigate or reduce the impact felt by individuals spending the costs associated with making change happen.

• Practical Tip #5:   Ensure robust well-being programs.  What are the outlets established for individuals in the organization to leverage when going through waves of change? Whether that be mental health training, external experts in place for coaching or guidance, or programs that allow individuals to take breaks from the daily grind.

• Practical Tip #6:  Prioritize people over profit.  Develop muscle memory within the workforce through training programs and increased opportunity to learn from low-stakes failure. Put budget in place to support these efforts. And even when stakes are high in the throes of change efforts, if an individual in your organization is being overwhelmed by change fatigue, work with them to understand what support looks like and provide it.

Change is inevitable, but change fatigue doesn’t have to be. By understanding the cost of change, reducing these costs, offsetting them with clear gains, and mitigating their impact, we can navigate our teams through the tumultuous seas of change with resilience and enthusiasm. Let's embrace these strategies, not just to survive but to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of our industries.

The pace of change continues to increase as our world becomes more complex, ambiguous, and uncertain driven by COVID ripple effects, evolving customer and consumer behaviors, social unrest, political division, AI/tech integration…just to name a few.  In our work environment, change is pouring in on unrelenting waves with higher-level complexity and magnitude.

To put it simply, change has changed.  “Change” is now rarely this linear thing that happens with a distinct beginning and end.  This foundation upon which traditional Change Management finds its footing, in today’s world, has become incomplete.  And here’s why:

• Change initiatives are being stacked on top of one another to keep up with business and market demands
• Change execution has increased in complexity with different types of change-leading programs happening across our businesses simultaneously from digital transformation, to culture change, to employee on-boarding, to HR policy changes.  The list goes on and on.
• Change lives across all aspects of life therefore the opportunity persists to give individuals the knowledge, skills, experience, mindset and practice to navigate change more effectively in life, not just work
• Change has become the new status quo with 100% of the individuals in our organization living in some state of change be it in their work or outside of it

As we consider this new status quo and the human-side of change, we must change the way we think about change, striving to become more focused on…

1. Better preparing for inevitable change,
2. Enabling our teams to not only deliver challenging projects and programs but also achieve growth and fulfillment within themselves through change, and
3. Empowering our leaders to nurture both themselves and their teams in this seemingly constant state of change.

Mitigating this fatigue risk means arming ourselves and our teams with the mindset and the human skills that allow them to face the more difficult emotions of change head-on while enabling them to see and maximize the opportunities their ever-evolving environment present.  We must expand our thinking from just managing change to growing through change.  Though I’ve often said you cannot have growth without change, going through change doesn’t guarantee you will experience personal growth unless you are armed, empowered, and willing to allow it.

Growth potential is determined by what happens at the intersection of change and emotion.  This holds true at the individual level, the organizational level, and even the societal level.  Because of this belief, I operate within a space myself and my team at Change Enthusiasm Global has coined Change Growth.  This space exists in tandem with Change Management, filling in the gaps project management professionals to often fall into using traditional Change Management practices.

Welcome to the Change Growth space. resting at the intersection of change and emotion.  In this blog, you’ll find the practical tips, tools, and inspiration to cultivate a practice of self-actualized growth through change and strengthen the human-skills necessary to achieve unparalleled business agility in your project and program management endeavors. You are welcome here and so are your feelings.