Aftershock , livre ebook

AFTERSHOCK
Helping People Through Corporate Change
AFTERSHOCK
Helping People Through Corporate Change
Harry Woodward Steve Buchholz
Wilson Learning Corporation
Edited by
K ren Hess
John Wiley Sons, Inc. New York Chichester Brisbane Toronto Singapore
Publisher: Stephen Kippur Editor: David Sobel Managing Editor: Andrew Hoffer Editing, Design Production: Publications Development Company
Copyright 1987 by John Wiley Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without the permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Woodward, Harry
Aftershock: helping people through corporate change.
Bibliography: p. 224
Includes index.
1. Workgroups. 2. Industrial organization.
I. Buchholz, Steve II. Hess, Karen. III. Wilson
Learning Corporation. IV. Title.
ISBN 0-471-62478-0
16 17 18 19 20
CONTRIBUTORS
Jane Agar
J. P. Morgan Company
Betty Bates
Pacific Bell
John Enright
Consultant
Henry Griffiths
IBM-UK
Sue Lampson
Consultant
George Land
Consultant
Velma Lashbrook
Wilson Learning Corporation
S. Michael Moss
J. P. Morgan Company
Bill Payne
Consultant
John Sullivan
Wilson Learning Corporation
Karon Wendt
Consultant
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to Donna Roberts, Cray Research, for her careful review of the manuscript and her assistance in obtaining permission to use The Cray Style. Thank you also to Steve Cohen and Dick Leider for their thoughtful reading of the manuscript and their valuable comments and insights.
A corporate thank you goes to the sales force, product development personnel, and support staff of Wilson Learning Corporation for their contribution to the process of understanding change and its effects on people in organizations. A special thank you to Aleta Millette who skillfully and patiently coordinated development of the book. Finally, thank you to David Sobel, Andrew Hoffer, and Nancy Land for their expert guidance and suggestions during the production of AFTERSHOCK.
CONTENTS
Introduction: From Future Shock to Aftershock
1. Change: The Only Constant

A Different Yes

A Case in Point

In Summary

Front Wheel versus Back Wheel

Basic Premises Regarding Change

How Do You View Change?

2. The Growth Curve: Phases of Change

The Growth Curve

In Summary

Averco Corporation-The Change Trigger

What s Wrong with This Picture?

What Needs To Be Done?

3. The Change Model: Endings, Transitions, Beginnings

The Never End Scenario

Introduction to the Change Model

The Basis of the Change Model

Basic Premises of the Change Model

Endings

Intellectual versus Emotional Endings

Transitions

In Summary

Beginnings

Organizations and the Change Model

A Final Point

4. The Effects of Change: The Change Response Scale

Victim/Owner

Loss/Gain

Rigidity (Form)/Resilience (Purpose)

In Summary

Technical versus Emotional Concerns Revisited

Recognizing How Change Is Affecting People

Uses of the Change Response Scale

5. Endings: Four Reactions to Change

Disengagement

Disidentification

Disorientation

Disenchantment

Big D, Little d

In Summary

The Reactions to Change at Averco

6. The Self-Management Process

Self-Talk

The Effects of Negative Self-Talk

The Management Rectangle

The Self-Management Process

Putting the Self-Management Process to Work

Fear versus Anxiety

7. Transitions: The CSE Support System

Clarify

Share

Engage

In Summary

Conclusion

The CSE Support System at Averco

8. Moving toward Beginnings: Intervention Strategies

Disorientation: Explain/Plan Strategy

Disengagement: Confront/Identify Strategy

Disenchantment: Neutralize/Acknowledge Strategy

Disidentification: Explore/Transfer Strategy

In Summary

A Final Note: Knowing versus Doing

9. Beginnings: Buying into the Change Together

Symbols and Ceremonies

Symbols and Values

Activities of Beginnings

Visions and Plans

Conceptual versus Sensual Visions

Communicating a Vision

Strategies for New Beginnings

10. Reducing the Half-Life of Recovery

How Long Is Your Half-Life of Recovery?

Recovery and the Pain Chart Revisited

Common Sense Is Not So Common
Appendix A A List of Technical, Political, and Cultural System Resistances
References
Index
INTRODUCTION
From Future Shock to Aftershock
Aftershock . What is it? Imagine a stylized drawing, an aerial view, of a community; picture the houses, schools, parks, a few lakes, churches, stores, a small river, and the offices of a mid-sized corporation. The drawing presents a pleasant scene, a stable, comfortable community.
Now the scene begins to change. Rumor has it that something is about to occur in the corporation, and ripples begin to radiate out from corporate headquarters. The rumors intensify and finally become real: reorganization, job redefinitions, layoffs. The ripples become more pronounced-they radiate out farther and farther and begin to touch other areas of the community. Soon new sets of ripples begin to radiate from houses, stores, schools, and churches. Before long the community is engulfed in a series of interlocking rings, looking like the transformed surface of a calm pond into which you have suddenly thrown a handful of pebbles.
This is a visual image of aftershock-a metaphor. Whether you live in a small community or a large city, the effects of change are like a web of ripples. One event affects another and, in turn, is affected by the reverberations that come back. The process feeds off itself, continually intensifying and building. The effect on people is fear, anger, confusion, and a loss of control.
Even though people know a change is coming and even though they understand it intellectually, it still has an emotional impact that they don t quite expect and that they find difficult to cope with. The purpose of this book is to help people begin the coping process.
This process, moreover, is not intended to make change suddenly go away. The pond seldom returns quickly to its former calmness. Rather, the task of this process is to give people the tools to deal with the effects of what appears to be a steadily increasing rate of change.
CHANGE
Change is one of the foremost issues, aif not the foremost business issue, of our day. Beginning roughly with the publication of Alvin Toffler s Future Shock in 1970, Change -with a capital C -entered the corporate lexicon as a word describing a mixed blessing. On the one hand, change represented growth, opportunity, and innovation; on the other hand, threat, disorientation, and upheaval.
Like it or not, change has become the norm. The relatively steady, predictable economic growth that characterized the post-World War II period has given way to rapid increases in competition, technical innovation, limited resources, and changes in attitude about work, male-female roles, and management.
More recent books such as Megatrends, The Changetnasters , and In Search of Excellence , all underscore the fact that our culture in general and business in particular have come to accept the aphorism: Change is the only constant.
Aftershock: Helping People Through Corporate Change is a response to a felt need on the part of organizations to understand and deal with change. Based on research, on painful experience, and on two successful Wilson Learning seminars developed to help managers and those with whom they work deal with change, the book is written for those who find themselves faced with change issues and feeling the pain. These issues may be reorganization, automation, rapid growth, downsizing, job redefinition, a physical move, the effects of competition, or a shifting market. Whatever the trigger, people are experiencing confusion, worry, anger, numbness, or all of the above. The primary questions they are asking are, What will happen? Will we get through this in one piece? Will it be smooth or will it be rough? John Enright characterizes the situation with an analogy:

. . . a branch floats peacefully down a river whose waters are high with the spring run-off. Although the branch is floating rapidly and occasionally bumps gently into a rock, it is almost effortlessly motionless in relation to the water it floats in. A similar branch has become wedged between some rocks, and is thus resisting the swift flow of water around it. This branch is buffeted, whipped, and battered by the water and debris floating past it, and will soon be broken by the pressure against it. If branches could experience, the one wedged into the rocks would be experiencing change with intense pain and distress; the floating one would experience ease and, paradoxically, comfortable stability even in the midst of rapid motion.
Expanding on Enright s analogy, people can experience change as being stuck or floating free; pain and dizzying motion or freedom and exhilaration. The key concept in all these experiences, however, is movement , or the lack of it. Likewise, this book has as its operative word . . . movement.
PURPOSE
The purpose of Aftershock is not to prevent or solve or cure, but rather to help people move more freely through the change process. Specifically, the aims of the book are:

To provide a set of strategies and skills people in change can use to manage the change process.
To minimize the people breakage that often accompanies change, that is, to help reduce the pain and dislocation people feel during a change experience.
To maximize the new opportunities that change presents for people and organizations.
FUTURE SHOCK and AFTERSHOCK
Toffler s Future Shock predicted a rapid increase in the rate of change and of