Change management, much like project management, is big these days. With companies going under or being bought by other companies, a lot of people feel like they’re up a creek without a paddle. Or, they’re not sure if they’re even in a creek, but they have a paddle and they’re using it to hit themselves over the head.
To see if you work in a place of constant churn, ask yourself if you’ve heard any of these things in the last week (also I encourage you to play B.S. Bingo at your next meeting):
“It’s like the blind leading the blind.”
“Well I can tell you how we USED to do things.”
“I don’t think we’ve met. I’m your new boss.”
“Hold off on that until we know more.”
That’s what I thought. Well, I’m here to help you. I’m here to share what I learned recently in change management training (by the way, there’s good money to be made in this field, if you don’t mind tears, hysteria and people being escorted from buildings by security).
Change Management training tells you the following:
People Are Like Sponges.
Everyone Has A Maximum Saturation Point.
Some People Reject Change Passively, Others Let You Know How They Feel About It.
Some People Simply Cannot Accept Change.
If you’re dealing with the last issue, there seems to be only one solution. And that solution is something I learned a long time ago from despair.com, so we might have all just wasted our time here. I’m sorry. I’ll let us both get back to Googling “how to find Darren Criss‘s cell phone number” now.
Go Jules Go 
I could go my whole life without ever hearing again, “Hold off on that until we know more,” and be happy. Thanks boss for letting us know none of what we do matters because you’re secretly plotting to make dramatic changes, and you’re going to feed us nonsense for a few months so we don’t revolt.
Yes! That’s the one that makes me want to poke my eyes out (except someone stole my scissors two years ago…out of fear, I suppose), followed immediately by the thought, Well, I’m only doing this until someone wants to pay me millions for blogging about Jonathan Taylor Thomas and halitosis.
I wouldn’t complain about a new boss though.
This comment made me laugh out loud!
I always think I’m open to change, but my last company was literally buying a new company every 3-4 months and it was always expected that I would just absorb the extra load without additional resources or time to prep. I’m sick of change.
I hear you! I am so beyond ‘maximum saturation’ (wow, suddenly this sounds like an adult diaper commercial). If I hear one more new acronym…
Fullen, Senge, Northrup… I’m knee deep in change management and can’t stand another acronym, fish diagram, or data driven decision… My friend is a turnaround officer… but sometimes I think it’s just another way to turn around the situation and turn your back on the realilty of humanity… Great in theory but in practice…. no one’s buying in, they know as well as I do that the times they are a changin’ and you can either suck it up or get out… ok, I’m a little riled up. I’ll go back to filling in my government forms before I get in trouble out here in the public sector:-)
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “Hold off on that until we know more.”
Anyway, change management is really a science of its own. It can be done at the individual level, at the project level, or at the organization level. In these days, it’s probably even more important than project management.
I totally agree! If you have problems in the change department, you’re not going to accomplish ANYTHING. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!