How to Embrace Change at Work with Rita Ernst
At work, change is inevitable. But that doesn't mean that it's always easy to embrace. In this episode, we discuss how to manage change at work, and how to make the most of the opportunities that change can bring. We'll also talk about some of the common challenges that come with change, and how to overcome them. If you're looking to make the most of your career, don't miss this episode!
In This Episode, You Will Learn About:
Most common challenges in organizational change
How to cope with change at work
Making the most of change opportunities
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About our guest:
Rita Ernst owns Ignite Your Extraordinary, an organizational consulting practice emphasizing the convergence of happiness and productivity to create positive, committed,high-performing organizations. She holds an advanced degree in Organizational Psychology from Clemson University. Her professional credits include adjunct professor for graduate and undergraduate classes, publication in national magazines, and featured podcast guest. Her first book, Show Up Positive, was released on June 14, 2022.
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Embracing Change
Today’s guest is the founder of Ignite Your Extraordinary, an organizational consulting practice emphasizing the convergence of happiness and productivity to create positive, committed and high performing organizations. She holds an advanced degree in organizational psychology from Clemson University, and her book, Show Up Positive was released on June 14th, 2022.
I have a background in organizational psychology. Psychology is really the place from which I view the world and organizational psychology is simply the study of how people come together in the workplace to make work happen. It’s just that simple. There’s social psychology in there. There’s motivational theory, there’s leadership and learning theory, and all of those things that are encompassed in my professional expertise. This has been my whole career. I went to school, specifically, I knew I wanted to be an organizational psychologist. I finished my masters and started working in Fortune 200 companies as an internal consultant. And then I left my corporate life. It was supposed to be temporary and then it sort of just became permanent. I have no regrets. I love being my own business owner and working with the clients that I choose, whose projects I share passion with. Extraordinary is in the name of my business, but we do extraordinary things together because we are just so aligned and lovely to be able to select for that, have that freedom as being a business owner.
It's nice to be able to choose the companies that you work with and ensure that they're aligned with your core values and embrace some of the steps to implement; to take that organization to the next level because there's some organizations that kind of get stuck in their silo and are a bit resistant. But the companies that really embrace training and development, it's so exciting to see when change is made and you get to see that positive outcome as a result.
I don't work with every client that comes to my door. Sometimes people are just not really ready. But I say jokingly, but it's actually also psychologically the truth, the name of my business is Ignite Your Extraordinary, so you can't have testimonials and reviews that are like, “oh, you know, it was pretty good. She was a nice lady.” You need people to be saying like, this was transformational. This was a huge impact for us. I really do have to pay attention to that readiness piece and make sure that I'm not setting up that business owner or myself and I've got a pretty good batting average on that.
You said the word transformation and I think about all the trainings that I was exposed to throughout my career, and I was very fortunate working for a Fortune 500 company where the level of training was extraordinary and what I always found as the most valuable, when you say about transformation is the ability to learn something and have it transform in all areas of your life, both professionally and personally. And that's my favorite content that I like to deliver, which I'm sure you do as well, where you get to see that 360 approach of teaching somebody something new and to seeing it just applied in all areas of their life.
We talk about organizational change and there's a lot of changes within an organization at any time. I know that my first couple years, I think it was my first two years as a manager, and it was a first time manager, we went through downsizing, change in leadership, organizational restructuring, and we also had an attempted hostile takeover from a competitor company. It made world news because if that takeover would've happened, it would've created a monopoly within the industry, and there were laws that prohibited that from happening. But you talk about anything that a manager could go through and change happening within the first two years.
Challenges Along the Changes in the Organization
When an organization goes through change, what are the most common challenges?
There are three that I see over and over and over again. You're talking about a deluge of change, which is its own sort of challenge. There is an upside to that too, which I think we'll talk about later, but let's just talk about the three most common challenges I see.
The first one is the positioning of change for the receiver. We don't tend to have a lot of difficulty with change when we're in the driver's seat. We make big life decision changes, to move cities or states or jobs or whatever it might be, add children, out of a spouse. Those are big life changes and we tend to navigate those with a lot more ease. Not that they're always this simple, but with more ease. However, when change feels like it's foisted upon us, we have a different response. I think that's the first, is that perspective and positioning. A lot of times companies make the mistake of talking at people as if they're doing change to them and they're looking for compliance with the change, instead of recognizing that this is happening to people and that you want their commitment, you need to talk with them as collaborators in the change, not just the receiver of a done decision. I think that's one.
I think the second most common thing that I see is that even if the change really truly makes sense, when you are in the process of making all of those decisions about change –it's over time a series of decisions that you are making–but when you announce it in a corporation, it's this end result point in time that is way far removed from where you started. The failure to transmit that journey and take people along the way with you, so people wait too long instead of creating this pathway that could be a shared journey, we get to this end result and we make this major announcement. We forget that everybody else is 6, 8, 9 months, sometimes more behind us, yet we expect them to just speed up and be right there with us in the moment, which is really not how most people function.
And then the third thing I would say is that we tend to respond from a place of fear when it comes to disagreement around change. We're not trusting of our relationships and our ability to navigate disagreement and allow that to be managed in a way that would be constructive to really getting that commitment that we need.
Exercising Transparency
When you talk about the little decisions that happen that end up creating sometimes these big decisions. When I think back at the managers that I've had and the ones that have navigated through change, and I have seen organizations embrace it versus the one where there's been a lot of resistance, I've noticed the key differentiator is transparency.
Some leaders hold things to the vest and it almost comes across as a dictatorship in saying, this is what we're doing. But when they're transparent and talking about the process along the way, and maybe you don't even have the answers specifically, it could be, we're going through X, Y, Z changes. This is why we're considering it, and maybe getting them part of your team, part of that conversation. Leadership does not happen just at the top. Leadership happens at every single level. When you get that team combining and making decisions, collectively, that's when you get to take that translation of the vision and take that organization to that next level.
But I agree with you a hundred percent where transparency is key and transparency throughout some of the changes and sharing the why behind it too. A lot of times companies go through downsizing and it can feel as though from an employee's perspective that we're not as valued, but sometimes those decisions need to be made in order to retain the employees that they do have. They're kind of tough decisions that need to be made sometimes in order to keep the organization moving towards the right direction, but they forget to put the “why”.
I agree. I think the “why” is huge. Again, sharing why in that transparency, that's definitely inviting people to share commitment with you versus just to swallow it and accept it. The other thing I would affirm that you're saying that I really want people to key into is one of the things that we know, from my study, my expertise in organizational psychology, is the people closest to the work have the most knowledge and information that you need to access. And when you don't include those people, you can be missing a really rich and robust amount of knowledge that you need to make the best decisions. And it's almost disrespectful, in my opinion, to not trust the people in your organization enough to really allow them to bring that and share that information with you.
And taking that into the personal life, I'm so glad that you talked about getting everyone involved. Would you imagine as a family making a life decision to move to another state without involving your kids? I can't imagine not involving my kids and having part of those conversations because we're all gonna be affected by it, and the same goes into an organization and the people that are closest to the customers are gonna be able to provide feedback in saying, this is how the customers might perceive this change. These might be some of the challenges that we get to talk through so that when we do this makes it XYZ change, we can be forward thinking and providing the resources or language around how to have those difficult conversations with our customer.
I think that is the perfect example of somebody who's really close to an important stakeholder. That in good change management, you have the landscape mapped of who the stakeholders are, and you're being very thoughtful and mindful about how you were engaging at each stage along the way. But it's been quite a while since I've been inside of a large corporation running change management. But I can say that 20 years ago when I was doing that, it was always this little incubator over here and conversation only with the top of leadership and then a decision, and then there was the rollout. I mean, as soon as you are using the word rollout, you are probably on the wrong path. Just keep that in your head.
That's a good perspective. Anytime you're in that rollout conversation, that's a really good perspective to share and a good reminder.
Adapting to Change
Let's think about as individuals, if we're going through change in the workplace, how might we adapt and what advice do you give for us adapting to change in the workplace so we can be in a position; we're not only adapting, but more or less embracing some of the change.
What I recommend to individuals and to work groups is conversation. You can start that conversation with yourself. You can journal, you can talk out loud with a friend, but here are some of the questions and content buckets that I would recommend that you use to really gain clarity about where your resistance resides with a change. Because if you're all in, that is a no brainer, things are fine, but if you're feeling resistant somewhere. start with just asking yourself.
What do you disagree with?
Are you disagreeing with what is going to get done?
What's the outcome? Or are you disagreeing with the how?
I actually just recently went through a medical issue with my father and I had this epiphany of, I got the, what I wanted, but not in the how that I wanted for him. I was sort of poo-pooing and disappointed and a little resistant to be happy as I should have been until one of my friends was like, “oh, that's wonderful. There was a pharmaceutical solution that's gonna work for him.” And I was like, “yeah, I didn't want him to be on all this medication, but at the same time, yay, there is medication that can fix this problem.”
Sometimes it's, I got what I wanted, I got my data out of the hospital. I wanted a different resolution. Where are you struggling with that? And some deeper questions that can help you With that is asking yourself:
What does this change mean to me?
At a personal level, how is this gonna impact me and what does that mean for me from my job?
What's coming up for me about what meaning does this hold?
And also asking yourself really truthful, hard questions about:
Is keeping things the way they are right now really the best answer?
What are the problems with the ways things are now?
What would be worth fixing and what is there now?
Can you get yourself in a place where you can imagine change being a valuable thing?
And I think the next bucket is sort of about, getting clear about your resistance. What's my no, about? What am I really feeling I'm saying no to? Because oftentimes it's one little thing. I wasn't saying no to my dad getting released from the hospital and being able to resume life. I was saying no to him having to take 13 pills a day. But sometimes that is the best answer. Asking yourself, here's a really gentle question to ask: What am I not ready to say yes to? So I've just heard the whole change, kitten caboodle delivered at me.What is it that was said that I'm not ready to say yes to? See if you can really zero in on where that resistance is or against staying in that conversation about why this matters to me so much? Like I asked myself, why does it matter to me so much that my dad is on medication? It was because of some lifestyle impacts that those medications would have that I was feeling really resistant to. But it was helpful to get clarity about that. The other big question in your know, is what am I afraid of? What am I gonna lose? What is it? What's being taken away from me? What's my big fear, that's got me saying no? And when you start to really reflect and think about those things, and sometimes you need to talk out loud or you need to journal to slow your mind down a little bit and get clarity, it will help you understand that you know, it's really, most of the time our resistance is on very, a very micro level. It's smaller things, not the larger change that we're really resisting, but it all gets emotionally entangled and we can't separate it out. So when you separate it out, it's a lot better.
And so the final question in this grouping would be, what does yes mean? So if I were going to say yes, what would have to be true about this change to make me really wanna support it? Or who do I need to have a conversation with or what conversation needs to be had for me to feel really good about moving forward? And once you begin to think and process these questions, I think you can find a pretty clear and streamlined path to getting out of your struggle and back into a place where you feel like you have a little more control. Because one of the things about having change done to us that really kicks us is we don't like to be outside of our own control. So once you can find your own little control thermostat, again, things tend to get a little easier.
What I'm hearing you say is really digging deep and creating this self-awareness, asking some deep questions to create the self-awareness around why we're feeling the way that we are. If we're in a resistance, whether we're in an embrace state, and understanding where that resistance might be coming from. Then we can discover what that next step is into getting into moving forward, and it sounds like really getting clarity around the resistance. You provided some really good questions. I think that's going be extremely helpful for, whenever we go through some sort of change, whether personal or professional, is those questions that you provided for us is writing them down, and then through that process, that's when we're able to discover what those emotions are, having the self-awareness around it and getting clarity on what that next step would look like.
I just say real quick whatever you're feeling about change is valid. It is valid to feel what you feel. So we're not trying to invalidate your feelings or trying to stop feeling. It's really recognizing why I am feeling this way and if I don't wanna feel this way. What would need to be different?
Change as a Way to Create Opportunities
What are some ways that we can make the most of opportunities when changes occur? Because there are some kind of pivotal moments in our career where we could, and then this might be one of them, when change is happening in our workplace, this could be a moment to step up, show our leadership potential, show up the value that we can bring to an organization. So how might we create those opportunities?
I think I go back to conversation and really specifically dialogue and dialogue is a very intentional state of exchange of a conversation with somebody, because it is grounded in inquiry and really trying to broaden our understanding. And so the way I like to think of it is you're gonna expand the conversation as big as you can, and then you're going to allow it like you're playing an accordion to come back in after you've had this chance to really explore and expand and get to know. Whenever you're feeling at a loss, and not understanding it or feeling out of control. Starting to get curious. I say this all the time, but I think it's so true. Curiosity is the answer to all of life's challenges. If you just start with curiosity, how can I get curious about what is happening, why it is happening? How I can engage with it differently once you get into curiosity. And so dialogue sort of gives you that. So when you're asking, you ask yourself, why is this important to me now? Ask other people around you to ask the supporters of the change. Why is, why does this matter to you? What is this getting you that's important to you? Why are you so passionate about doing this?
Because once you begin to recognize where you have shared alignment of outcomes and things that you care about most. Like I said, most of the time it's a small sliver where there is disconnection. And then the other piece I would add to this is going back to what you said at the very beginning about all those changes that you were navigating in this job. What a bold learning opportunity? So change is an opportunity to learn and discover more about ourselves and our strengths and to build muscles. You know, when you go to the gym, you don't do the same exercise every day, day after day, after day after day. Why do we not do that at the gym?
First that would feel very mundane. And your body in order to really strengthen and tone your body. It's shifting the exercises that you're doing to work different muscles and different skill sets. And now I can see where you're going with this. Where in order for us to develop as individuals and develop as leaders, it's learning different skill sets and different muscles and experiences to shape us into the type of leader that we get to be in tomorrow. I mean that change is always presenting you with that gym moment opportunity to get that bus leadership body you want.
Applying Change Opportunities at Work
Well, you have shared so much valuable information and not only understanding from a leader's perspective how they can be transparent, how they can get inclusive with everybody within the organization. To have open dialogue, conversations around change, and then also as individuals how we can cope with change by having that self-awareness in our emotions and validating our emotions because they are really there. But also how to process and have self-awareness around our emotions to take us to that next step. And then also how change can create opportunities for our career moving forward. If there's three, I would say action step words of wisdom that you wanna leave people with. What would they be?
I think the first one is to go internal. Our natural tendency is to complain. Complaining is one of the easiest forms of communication that we participate in. At times of change, we often want to get together with other people and we want to do this complain with each other. But all of that does it is it might be cathartic to say it for a moment, but it's not solving for anything. Right. And it just sort of creates what I call the toilet ball effect. Where it's just going to sucks and the energy and the life out of the room. So go inside instead, start with yourself. Start asking yourself those questions about what, where am I? What do I need? Why am I, why am I feeling this way? If you want to not feel stuck or put upon during change, this is how you stand firm. In your self control, right as you first look inward, I think you ask yourself questions that challenge your understanding and your assumptions that you're making. Instead of assuming all kinds of things about this change, get curious and go start asking questions and getting more information. So, you know, our minds trick us all the time with misinformation. It's really important that we test and make sure. Start with yourself, test all those assumptions, ask questions, get curious.
And then the last piece is remembering that there's probably 80 to 90% agreement on the “what.” Whatever outcome that business is trying to push forward, you know, this is going to give us better margins. This is going to give us more customers. Whatever that thing is that they're saying, this change is in service to, chances are you're not in a disagreement with that. So once you can say, well, yeah, I can get behind having more customers and more money because that means I can get a pay raise. That means I can add people to my team, whatever those things are, more money flowing in the business means more cash to spend on the business. That's a good thing for me. Once I understand that, then I can say, well, so what is it about this? And is it just about the delivery or is there real content? Are you just having your normal human response, which is normal to have of like, “oh, don't, don't go changing things on me like that.” Like, “you have it properly prepare me for this. This is not fair.” I mean, it's okay to feel that way, but you really need to understand yourself, and then allow yourself to be your own advocate for what you are needing at that moment.
So in times of change, it is look and word. Don't be the person that complains because complaining could create a wildfire and spread. Everywhere within an organization that can affect the morale and culture of the organization. Then you're talking also about communication and transparency and getting everybody involved, and also in the sense of you having shared the sense of being communicative with everybody and providing the “why,” the why is key.
If you don't understand the why, go fight it. Like start, start there. Start asking questions to understand more. The one thing I can say, because I've been on both sides of the change process, you probably have as well, because that piece we talked about; so you're months, months and months down the road, you are so ready. It can be hard to remember that other people aren't there. So if you have this conversation about bad leaders and bad communication and all those things, that could be true, but I don't think it's bad intention. I think that it is just excitement for what you see the possibility to be a failure to remember what it takes to get you there.
That's where I said challenge your assumptions. If you're assuming the person because of the way it's being communicated, you're assuming bad things about that person or about the change, it really could just be over enthusiasm that's being mishandled on the part of a human being who is just humane in the best way that they know how, and is a little nose blind to the fact that, that they're not meeting their audience where they need to. But that doesn't mean that they have malicious intent.
I can relate to so much of what you said when I was early on as a manager, we are often previewed to what those changes are before they're actually implemented with the organization or the changes communicated to the entire organization. And I remember there have been times when the conversation about change was happening. We might be going through downsizing, we might be going through restructuring, and my immediate shock and the emotions that I had, I was able to process long before communicating that to my team. And that is such a great reminder and I'm so glad that's really what we're leaving people with today is remembering that if you are the first person to hear the change, understand that you have the time to process some of those emotions and to get through adapting to those different emotions of self-awareness. And then understanding that when you do communicate it to the people within your organization, to be mindful of how we're communicating it, because we get to meet them where they're at, is what I'm hearing. It's a big, complex subject, but hopefully we've given them some really good, powerful tools that they can add into their toolkit to help them.
