cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

Leading changeLeadership for the endingHere is Bridges’ advice for how to manage the ending phase (or how toget them to let go):• Study the change carefully and identify who is likely to lose what.• Acknowledge these losses openly – it is not stirring up trouble.Sweeping losses under the carpet stirs up trouble.• Allow people to grieve and publicly express your own sense of loss.• Compensate people for their losses. This does not mean handouts!Compensate losses of status with a new type of status. Compensateloss of core competence with training in new areas.• Give people accurate information again and again.• Define what is over and what is not.• Find ways to ‘mark the ending’ (see box).• Honour rather than denigrate the past.MARKING THE ENDWhen a large publicly owned utility company in the UK split up into amyriad of small privatized units, there was a great sense of loss. Oldteams and old friendships were breaking up. It was the end of an era. Theorganization held a wake, at which everyone moaned and complainedand generally got things off their chest. There was much talk late into thenight. The transition moved more smoothly after that event as peoplebegan to accept the reality and inevitability of the ending.Leadership for the neutral zoneThe neutral zone is an uncomfortable place to be. This is the time whenfor instance, the reorganization has been announced, but the new organizationis not in place, or understood, or working. Anxiety levels go up andmotivation goes down, and discord among the team can rise. This phase171