Change is a constant, many discussions on this exist including my own. What I want to raise is the risk of frequent change and what that can do to those in the change.

There is a model called the Prosci Flight and Risk Model that documents how different people or methods can affect this curve. The better changes minimise the time people are in the worry or risk zone. Getting them back up to the security zone.

Thinking on this more deeply was, what happens when you have multiple changes happening within a short space of time. When people or teams do not have time to recover, they cannot get back into that zone they were in. So then where would they potentially be.

The Modified Model

My altered diagram is my attempt to capture what the impact of multiple changes could be. They could be smaller ones, larger ones, but ultimately each change brings a certain amount of uncertainty or destabilisation. The beginning of all of this is when the rumour or communication is first announced.

The constants are around engagement and time, engagement will generally dip during change. Also it will take time to improve that engagement, no matter the change expertise employed.

From experiencing rapid change I can see this playing out in certain people or teams. Like all models, one size does not fit all. I have seen when someone can have many changes at once and still seemingly remain in the green where one or two changes can cause someone to remain in the red for a long period of time.

What Can Be Done

This is where a manager can really show what skills they have and importantly what trust they have endeared in their team.

1. If the team is high trusting in that leader and that leader is shown to remain in the green, I believe this will impact the team positively. I’m sure we’ve all had experiences of this or where the opposite happened and how we were affected
2. Timing of the events and release of information. If there are multiple events part of a larger change this could be beneficial. It’s one change with smaller parts. But the psychological impact is from the initial communications. Where if the changes are released with seemingly intermittent gaps in communication or seemingly not linked, this will count as multiple counts
3. Communication ahead of the change. If you can communicate in advance then it allows everyone to process this, what it means to them and what they can do. This seems obvious but many times this does not happen

One detail I missed off was the amount of detail, I miss this off because of one crucial reason. We don’t always have that information to give. Naturally share as much as possible where it helps. BUt many times there is a fog of war, so manage this as best as possible.