Change is about loss

Change is about loss. It’s surprising how often this comes up in my day to day life.

Of course, the first challenge of change is to get managers to focus on it at all. There’s no problem getting an executive to agree that change is important because “it’s important that we bring our people with us ion the journey”. But that rhetoric is sometimes – and sadly too often – as far as it gets. The rhetoric has to turn into dollars and it has to turn into the commitment of senior time and permission for others to spend time championing the change. All that is straightforward. But we often make a serious mistake when we are thinking about change.

Those involved in the creation of a vision or the description of some brave new world are – almost by definition – sold on its attractions and benefits. But for those who are about to be changed, that brave new world doesn’t look quite so brave. They are about to be asked to stop doing something that they are used to and that they feel comfortable with.

Change is about loss. Change is about giving something up. Sure, it may be about getting something new. But when faced with a new thing we often don’t have a frame of reference to evaluate the new. If we only create that frame of reference in terms of the new – which so many change agents try to do – we will not be successful. We must craft our story from the perspective of the targets of change. They need to be pushed as well as pulled!!

The big life events are about loss in some way – when we get married, have a baby, buy a house, retire – all these events involve loss. The future is an uncertain place and that’s what can make it scary.

As change agents we need to understand and articulate what people are giving up and craft our story of the future in those terms.