Meaningful Change Takes Time and Dedicated Effort

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Acceptance graph

Meaningful Change Takes Time & Dedicated Effort

Recently I was reading an article about the Minneapolis School District and how difficult it has been for the school board to implement change. They had a small graphic accompanying the article. That graphic got me thinking. Although the challenges this particular school district is facing are unique (at least to school districts), their struggle is universal. Simplified, the struggle is change.

It’s an old adage that change is inevitable, and it’s true. Whether in your persona life, or in your organization, change is going to happen. Below is a chart that shows what I’m calling the 8 Stages of Organizational Acceptance.

Stage 1 is simple; it’s the old way of doing things, the status quo. Everyone is comfortable and there is predictability.

Stage 2 is when an organization realizes there is an issue and that it needs to be addressed. Often this stage is the result of a problem being brought to the attention of management. The severity of the problem may determine the degree of urgency in addressing it. If you have investigators or regulators breathing down your neck, you’re likely to seek more urgent change.

Stage 3 is resistance. Resistance can stem from any level of an organization—top to bottom. People like routine and predictability. As soon those things are disrupted, there will be resistance, regardless of what the change actually is or the reasoning behind it.

Stage 4 is a period of disruption. As with all organizational change (from implementing a new code of conduct to switching from Pepsi to Coke in the vending machines), there is going to be a period where things are out of whack. People may not understand what is expected of them, or may be unclear as to how their roles are changing. This is the time when everyone is breaking old habits, and learning new ones. Things may get a little messy during this transition.

Stage 5 is the turning point for those affected by the change. This stage is searching. At this point, everyone is starting to become more comfortable with the new way of doing things. Now is when individuals will begin to search internally as to how they fit into that change.

Stage 6 is the lightbulb moment. At Stage 6, a new understanding has been gained. Everyone has accepted that the change has occurred, and realizes the role they play within it.

Stage 7 is internalizing. Here, everyone has—whether consciously or not—made the “new” way of doing things simply the way of doing things. New habits have been formed, and a greater understanding of why the change was implemented has been reached.

Stage 8 is the final stage. At this point, the change has been accepted and become engrained at an organizational level. It’s where you can see the lasting effects of the change, and the sustainable results.

1 COMMENT

  1. Hello,

    I found your site while browsing for images like the graphic on this “Leave A Reply” page. Your comments about the Minneapolis School District and its team evolution process interested me because of an experience I had at a leading global telecom service provider in the 1992 time frame.

    Doing advanced management studies at the time, I stumbled across Bruce Tuckman’s paper, cited below, and a revisited work as well. With this insight and the help of friends in Organizational Dynamics, I effected the path that moved a large team to a Self-Managed Work Team concept. This was novel at the time, especially in a super-large organization, where the team in question behave most irrationally during the urgency, resistance and disruption stages. The management team and workers were both guilty of contributing to misunderstanding and resistance.
    Thankfully, I was able to apply the insight and lessons learned again much more easily when I directed a small product management team in 2000.

    I am sharing this and the source works and citations below in case you have not seen them, and in case you are interested in reading them.

    1. Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 Forming Storming Norming Performing team-development model. (2007, October 19). Retrieved from http://tinyurl./znu62pv

    2. Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. (1977, December). Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/gq9rwfa

    I currently teach at National University, Fresno, CA and would welcome speaking with you if you wish.

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