We have likely all worked for organizations that claimed to want to change. When enacting this change, leaders may require new behaviors from employees, asking them to act with agility and transparency and to keep customer outcomes in mind. Organizations may even give out pens or other marketing materials with the new motto for the big change. Still, there are often gaps in how change is implemented. The performance management process and rewards systems may not immediately change. The leadership team may not change. The result can be a slow transformation that does not drive results as quickly as expected while creating uncertainty for individuals.
This is not an anomaly. Whether we are trying to manage change within our personal lives or within organizations, doing “all the right things” to deliver the expected outcomes is not easy. Let’s explore the ways that we can manage change when it happens to us and how organizations can be more effective in their own reorganization efforts.
Managing personal change
Change comes in many forms: a new job, a new supervisor, a new process, or a company reorganization. Change is taxing for us because our brains are constantly trying to follow predictable patterns and we require more energy — literally in the form of more oxygen and glucose — to create new neural pathways and learn new patterns.1 The brain is estimated to be responsible for as much as 20% of our total energy even when at rest,2 and building new synapses when learning is extremely energy intensive. For this reason, we are designed to follow established neural pathways and resist situations that increase energy load.
Therefore, handling change in our lives also means managing an increased energy load on our brains. Here are some tactics to use when change
occurs:
- Create predictable patterns elsewhere in life: When Alina worked in consulting, she started a new project in a new industry with a new team about every 3-6 months. During the first few weeks on those projects, she used more food deliveries than usual to avoid cooking, or she prepared larger food portions on weekends. Often, she ate the same breakfast smoothie with the same ingredients every day.
- Engage in healthy habits: From a stress management perspective alone, there is a clear reason to follow a good diet and exercise routine when facing change. From a neuroplasticity perspective, aerobic exercise in particular has been found to promote brain health and strengthen cognitive function, which can increase overall ability to learn.3 Over the years, Alina built a habit of working out on Saturday and Sunday, when she typically has the greatest control over her schedule. When you can, move your healthy habits to times when you can still engage in them even while you are experiencing change.
- Recharge with familiar activities: We all have “comfort” activities or habits that help our brains engage in familiar patterns. For Alina, this involves painting, calling friends and family, or journaling. Neglecting comfort activities during periods of high stress can have an extremely negative impact because we do not give our brains a chance to feel safe during challenging times.
Even after we have adapted to a major change, it is critical to increase our overall resilience to change long term, through tactics such as these:
- Seek out more change: We become more resilient to change when we give ourselves more opportunities to experience change. This can mean taking classes, learning new skills, meeting new people, or volunteering. For example, Payal uses the SWE Advanced Learning Center to enhance professional development skills and refers colleagues to other platforms like Coursera or Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare to improve technical skills.
- Keep up with your network: If the change you experienced was because of a layoff or you anticipate needing to make a career pivot in the future, take concerted steps to manage your network. When making career pivots from engineering to consulting, and then from consulting to an industry role again, Alina maintained steady connections to mentors inside and outside her organizations. This took the form of lunches, phone calls, emails, and even an occasional text exchange. Do not underestimate the power of being top of mind in someone’s life!
- Remember that a little can go a long way: When making major life transitions, it can feel as if there is not enough time to do the “right things” to manage change. But carving out even a little time to learn continuously can be effective.
Managing change in organizations
As leaders, navigating change and building resilience into organizations are also important and require coordinated efforts. Change can result from things within an organization’s control, such as hiring employees or developing new products, or things outside the organization’s control, such as market forces. Either way, crafting a consistent message about the change and appointing a dedicated team to oversee the transition will set the stage for success.
Understanding each individual’s openness to the upcoming change is key because the organization ultimately consists of people. As we explored earlier, some may naturally resist the change. Consider who will be resistant and who will be champions. This can allow your team to create a more effective plan.
Aligning incentives with the desired changes rewards the adoption of new habits, preventing a relapse into old ways of working. Leadership buy-in and the ongoing recognition of traits such as innovation, adaptability, and resilience serve as catalysts for organizational transformation long after the initial changes are implemented.
In a world in which change is a constant, resilience is the linchpin of success. By embracing change at the individual and organizational levels, we will not only survive, but also thrive — not only withstand the change, but also work toward growth and innovation.
Building resilience in careers and organizations is not just about weathering storms; it is about harnessing the power of change to propel ourselves and our organizations to greater heights.
References
- Nancy Michael (Jan. 31, 2023). The Neuroscience of Behavioral Change: Why Intention, Attention and Persistence Matter. Notre Dame News.
- Ho Ling Li and Mark CW van Rossum (2020). Energy Efficient Synaptic Plasticity. eLife.
- Jitesh Kumar, Tirath Patel, Fnu Sugandh, et al. (July 15, 2023). Innovative Approaches and Therapies to Enhance Neuroplasticity and Promote Recovery in Patients with Neurological Disorders: A Narrative Review. Cureus 15(7).
