Coping with Organisational Change
Change is an ever-present dynamic in organisations. Simply put, organisations must be fluid and constantly change to meet ever-changing environments, customer needs and expectations. In addition there is the consideration of the pace of technological and social change, as well as the ability to morph to meet market dynamics which are often volatile or cyclical.
Change for employees is an ongoing process essential to life and living. Our body has the capacity to respond to change on a moment to moment basis. For example, our heart rate changes to meet our biological needs. Often we might not even be conscious of how we change in order to adapt to an ever-changing environment. Our capacity to adapt to change is a vital skill necessary for living. Employees in an organisation are faced with an ongoing imperative to change and evolve to stay relevant and marketable as an employee.
Organisational and employee change are interdependent and interlinked. Some changes are self initiated changes, such as when we realise that we might have a new idea or realisation of a new efficiency or window of business opportunity. Other changes are imposed upon employees, like restructures, redundancies, company policy changes or laws, which triggers a need to respond that allows us to start adapting to the change.
Some organisations struggle to stabilise and seem to be on an endless round of restructure and change. If our lived experience of change has left us hurt, worn out and fatigued, the mere thought of more change elicits anxiety and dread, especially as we try to imagine how we are going to cope with an impending challenge or task. This is where awareness of how we access our internal and external support processes can play a constructive role.
Unsupported change can make us feel disoriented, stressed, sad, angry, worried or anxious. Prolonged exposure to such a combination of the above mentioned emotions may lead to stress based illness in the longer term. If we were to encounter sudden and traumatic change without the supports we require to adjust, or make sense of our experience and heal, we could quickly come to perceive any hint of impending change as threatening. Employees in these perceived realities often suffer burnout, chronic fatigue symptoms, stress illnesses, anxiety or depression illnesses. Organisations often then lose valued employees or carry them in an impaired functioning state.
Corporate Energetics offers Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) to assist organisations and their employees in times of change, transition and restructure. In times of change it is often beneficial and stabilising to support employees through major planned or unplanned transition, change or crisis. Quality interventions prevent employee dissatisfaction and stresses building to unhealthy levels, and prevent a toxic workplace evolving out of the dynamics of constant change.
Coaching, Counselling and BodyMind Psychotherapy might assist and support employees in better understanding the issues at hand with a specific process of change. It allows the employee to explore within a safe and supportive environment, how our internal and external processes that support change currently are working for or against them. This is part of the process of improving employee awareness, Emotional Intelligence, and coping with acceptance of how it really is for us, as opposed to being pressured into imagining how we should be.
It can also be a supported opportunity to try to identify how and why our capacity to adapt creatively has been diminished. It would also be an opportunity to identify new skills or strategies to manage workplace change effectively and adapt with new learnings and approaches to coping with change.
Change is a constant phenomenon in life, and learning to manage change in a supported creative manner that is in keeping with our beliefs and values is an important skill set that can assist the process.
Contact Us and find out how we can assist you in managing the effects of workplace change.