Change management: Helping people with transitions

Description

Organizational change to support an innovation is a complex task that involves changing processes and how people work. A related issue is supporting people with emotional responses to change during a transition at work. This resource, developed by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, provides strategies and techniques to acknowledge and work with people's emotions in response to organizational change.

Several resources and approaches are provided, including:

• questions to understand why staff are resistant to change;
• frameworks to help people assess how change will impact their work;
• how to recognize the different communication styles of people involved in a change initiative;
• conflict management strategies; and
• activities and strategies to discuss change as a group and for team building.

Another related resource, Change management toolkit, includes templates and strategies to provide logistical support to implement an innovation in practice, such as conducting a change audit and determining change, in addition to addressing emotional responses to change.

In addition to this resource, there are 14 other guides in this series of Improvement Leaders' Guides, organized into three groups (to access these resources, register on the NHS website):

• General improvement skills
• Process and systems thinking
• Personal and organizational development

Steps for Using Method/Tool

Elements critical for supporting staff during a change iniative include:

• understanding people's perspectives of the change;
• developing a range of styles for working with others;
• using active listening;
• developing geniune rapport with people; and
• understanding that every behaviour is useful in some way.