The grinding, continuous volume of change may be wearing out employees, but often senior leaders don’t see it. This is according to a seven-country survey of senior executives at large corporations commissioned by Ketchum Change, a leadership and change management consultancy.
“Dynamic business environments and a culture of continuous change is the new normal for large organizations, and it’s only going to accelerate,” said Tyler Durham, partner and president of Ketchum Change, the change management and employee engagement unit of global communications firm Ketchum.
Durham adds, “Employees don’t have time to adapt to one change before the next one is upon them. The challenge for leaders is to drive change in ways that energize and empower people and ensure their organizations are prepared both culturally and operationally to embrace change as opportunity.”
According to the Liquid Change Survey, some senior leaders are unaware of the effects of change fatigue, while their employees struggle to keep up.
Among partners and C-suite executives, only 28% think change fatigue is highly prevalent in their companies, compared to 41% at the director level, and 47% at the senior vice president and vice president levels.
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“The survey tells us many top-tier leaders don’t recognize the exhausting effect that continuous change and volatility has on employees and how that exhaustion can lower employees’ productivity, reduce their engagement, and damage retention rates,” said Durham. “And if leaders aren’t aware of it, they will be unprepared for its damaging effects and the resulting costs on their business.”
The survey results point to a cure for change fatigue. The results show a strong correlation between companies that have embraced a change culture and those that have a bright outlook on the future. Those companies have committed to four behaviors that Ketchum Change identifies as essential to success in changing environments:
- Transparent: Communicating with clarity and authenticity across borders and employing open communication, decisive action, and personal presence;
- Pioneering: Promoting curiosity and experimentation and supporting risk-taking to break through and innovate;
- Dialed-in: Creating strong connections with internal and external stakeholders, embracing fearless listening, and fostering co-creation; and
- Agile: Driving forward through passion and resiliency to seize and act on opportunities in real time.
The survey indicates that to succeed in an environment of continuous change, a different, more collaborative approach must replace the old top-down, command-and-control model. Outlining a clear strategy and goals (43%) and engaging with leaders across the organization to co-create the new environment (41%) were cited as the most effective ways to get leaders to believe in and actively lead through change.
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Conversely, the most common impediment to successfully navigating through change was gaining input from across the business. Looking at the results of the study overall, it becomes clear that companies that manage change effectively have a more positive outlook on their future—and good communication across the organization is key.
“Business leaders and employees have never had to deal with change at the unrelenting pace we see today,” said Durham. “Leadership behaviors, corporate cultures, and organizations’ operating systems are going to have to adapt and become more liquid to address the new reality and seize competitive advantage or they will break under the strain.”
Other Liquid Change survey findings include:
- Pioneering behaviors such as being an innovation leader relative to peer companies and seizing upon new ideas are key drivers of business outlook and ability to thrive through change.
- Conversely, organizations that experienced highly prevalent levels of change fatigue were significantly more likely to cite the following as challenging:
- Economic climate (72% vs. 31% at companies that feel change fatigue is less prevalent);
- Political climate (72% vs. 22%);
- Risk adversity (72% vs. 23%); and
- Gaining input from across the business (69% vs. 26%).
- People working in general management were less likely to see change fatigue as highly prevalent at their organization than those in human resources, organizational development, or communications.
For more information, visit the Ketchum website.