When you’re faced with change and having to do things in a new way, have you noticed that it takes longer to get things done?
The smallest changes in a process can be disruptive.
Most change situations involve having to learn something new or doing things in a new way. This means breaking the default pattern of thought that you normally follow automatically and replacing it with a new pattern. For example when you change your car, or the version of Microsoft Word on your computer. The simplest task, that you could do in auto-pilot mode before, takes more effort and takes longer. So naturally there is a dip in performance and it can be very frustrating.
During organisational change, we expect people to take on additional tasks whilst expecting them to carry on delivering their day-to-day work commitments at their normal pace, just when they will experience a dip in performance. This causes unnecessary anxiety and stress.
Performing through the learning dip
1. Don’t expect to sustain normal performance levels during change – allow for the dip
2. Support your teams to help them through
3. Remember that a drop in performance at this time is not a sign of failure or incompetence
4. Where frustration sets in, judgement may become clouded and mistakes can be made – set realistic expectations
5. Acknowledge when performance begins to climb back and celebrate the improvement that results
The steps outlined here are really simple, but can make an enormous difference to your change programme and the results you get!
