The Change Cycle – How people accept change over time
I’ve written previously about change being a process. At the recent ProductCamp Toronto, I spoke about this a bit more and introduced what I call The Change Cycle.
(click to enlarge)
This gives more detail into the process many people go through when they become aware of significant changes in their environment. This could be related to their job, company, community, family or other group or context they belong to.
For those of you familiar with a certain analyst firm’s Hype Cycle, you may see a bit of a resemblance, but this applies to how people react to change, and not how markets adopt new technologies.
A lot of this could probably be proven by psychologists (any out there?), but I’m not one so I’ll forego that.
This curve is based on empirical evidence and my own observations of how people tend to react to any significant news of change that could potentially affect them.
The Change Cycle consists of 5 phases:
- Point of initial awareness – This is the start of the Change Cycle and occurs when a person or group of people first hear about a significant change in their environment
- Valley of Anxiety and Confusion - Upon hearing the impactful news, the first thing most people do is worry about how it will affect them individually. They start thinking about worst-case scenarios or the potential fallout of the change on their roles, jobs, careers and lives. In short, they worry because they have incomplete information, they don’t know what the future will hold and their psyche fills in the gaps, usually with negative information.
- Peak of Elation and Relief – In most cases the impact is not as bad as originally thought and fears and anxiety subside. People may even chide themselves for being worry worts and feel relieved that they will not be impacted as harshly as originally thought.
- Slope of Understanding – As the change process starts happening, more information is provided. And with more context and clarity about the future, people start to see their new roles and situation in light of the change.
- Plateau of Acceptance – The final stage occurs as people embrace the change. This doesn’t happen at the same pace for everyone, and in some cases, there will be individuals who will not fully accept change. But over time, the new situation becomes the norm, and the process will start over again when the next Point of Initial Awareness is encountered.
For Product Managers — who are agents of change — keep reminding yourself that at the very core, change impacts people and their willingness to accept it is critical for positive changes to happen.
Help people reach the Slope of Understanding, but from their context, not yours, and you’ll see positive changes flow through your company or teams much more effectively.
Thoughts? Comments? I’d love to hear them.
Saeed
Related posts:
- How different people handle change
- Curious people can change the world: +1 for ProductCamp Austin
- Change is a process, not an event…
- Measuring the selling cycle
- Doing vs. Thinking – A case for corporate culture change
RT @onpm New Blog post: The Change Cycle – how ppl react to change over time. http://wp.me/pXBON-1D3 #prodmgmt #psychology
New Blog post: The Change Cycle – how ppl react to change over time. http://wp.me/pXBON-1D3 #prodmgmt #psychology
RT @onpm: New Blog post: The Change Cycle – how ppl react to change over time. http://wp.me/pXBON-1D3 #prodmgmt #psychology
Saeed – I really enjoyed your post and recall all the times where I’ve lived the cycle. It’s amazing how some people get stuck in the first two areas and never seem to progress to a more change fulfilled state.
I have a question or two. Is your Product Camp presentation available online? Also, what are your thoughts on how product management leadership can advance change when it’s not initiated by that team?
Keep up the good work!
Jim
Jim,
Thanks for the comment. The ppt can be found on this page:
http://onproductmanagement.net/2010/06/08/productcamp-toronto-2010-roundup/
Check out the Product Management Axioms set of slides. They are not too detailed though as they are part of the “5 Minute Talks” we held. If you want to discuss further, please contact me directly.
As for your second question, that’s a bit tougher to answer.
The worst thing to do is leave people in limbo and not give them the information they need to understand how the change will impact them.
In general, if you can help answer the question “How much better off (or worse off) will I be as a result of this change?” for people that will move things forward.
Also, be honest with people, even if there is some bad news associated with being honest, but you have to balance that with the first point.
e.g. being honest that layoffs are coming but the details won’t be announced for several weeks puts people in limbo for that period.
Timing is important. Once you have information that people can digest and not sit in limbo, provide it so they can continue forward on the change cycle.
The Change Cycle – How people accept change over time http://ow.ly/1866QR
From my reader: The Change Cycle – How people accept change over time: I’ve written previously about change being … http://bit.ly/d7B94U
RT @incentintel: From my reader: The Change Cycle – How people accept change over time: http://bit.ly/d7B94U – nice visulization
RT @onpm New Blog post: The Change Cycle – how ppl react to change over time. http://wp.me/pXBON-1D3 #prodmgmt
RT @Jim_Holland via @onpm "The Great Change Cycle" ~ http://wp.me/pXBON-1D3 #leadership & #prodmgmt — Very interesting!
Hi Saeed,
Liked the post, but wanted to get your thoughts on how the Change Cycle affects Product Managers directly. The post discusses how to communicate out about change, but we are often in a vortex of change: priorities, staff, organization, market. How can Product Managers best deal with the constant flux?
Ivan
The Productologist
Hi Ivan,
Just so I understand your question, are you asking how PMs can deal with change? i.e. change from other teams and/or Sr. Management that impacts PMs?
Ivan,
I’d have to say that for those being impacted by change, they should make the effort to get the information they need to reach an appropriate level of understanding. Ask questions, get answers, make decisions and take action.
People impacted by change can deal with it passively or actively. I think those that address it actively are likely to be much better off in the long run.
How ppl react to and accept #change – The Change Cycle – http://wp.me/pXBON-1D3 #prodmgmt #psychology #leadership
RT @saeedwkhan: How ppl react to and accept #change – The Change Cycle – http://wp.me/pXBON-1D3 #prodmgmt #psychology #leadership
Hi Saeed,
I really enjoy your post. This works in most of my projects – ERP system implementation. In most cases ERP projects bring huge changes to operational works of employees. So, it is really critical to manage the change.
In my projects, Peak of Relation and Relief appear quite late, not as early as the curve illustrates. However, as a project manager, I feel really passionated when people come to understand there new role in the new system. I would say that is when the project is completed, and this completion may come long after the formal completion.
Great posts.
http://pmreviews.org
@nlongson
Nguyen
Thanks for the comment. The shape of the curve in the blog post is only illustrative. It is not representational.
By that I mean the peaks/valleys/width etc are not to scale and will vary with different situations.
As in your case, the Peak of Elation and Relief may come much later. That means that the Valley of Anxiety and Confusion is wide, but perhaps much shallower than I have depicted.
Overall though, this is meant simply as an empirical model to help us understand some of the stages that people may encounter as they adapt to change.
Saeed
The Change Cycle – How people accept change over time http://bit.ly/adINnv #PMOT
Relevant to #ux: The Change Cycle – How people accept change over time http://ow.ly/1866QR (via @utollwi)
[...] way bigger now with a much wider solution portfolio than before. But I wanted to share this graph and article with you which looks to map out the effect of change on people. I don’t think there was any [...]
Hi Saeed,
this all sounds very familiar … the is the classic change management curve. I am wondering as you have no description on your y-axis what this stands for? It is hard to understand any chart when you are unclear about the axis.
You want to take some further inspiration when searching for “Change Management Curve” than you will get some decent hits and descriptions for your axis …
best regards
Marcus
Hi Saeed,
Do you think that experience with a lot of changes in a company reduces/compresses the timeline of the change cycle or do you think that it generally stays the same? Having led a number of new product development projects in the past, I have found that it doesn’t generally get any shorter even with if those being impacted by change have seen it often before. I would be curious to hear what your experience has been.
@rapunzellet @mulberrybush @EvidenceMatters http://t.co/sSPBxRes BUT SUSPECT NO LONGER APPLIES!