When this development leads to a situation where change is inevitable, the leaders often find themselves in a downright crossfire of tensions. The key to turning change into success starts with the most important resource – the people. This is where it often also starts getting difficult for many leaders.

“From most leaders’ point of view, it is quite straightforward to simply maximize efficiency”, says Outi Ikonen, Leading organizational psychologist at Terveystalo.“While changing organizational structures and processes is challenging to begin with, those challenges multiply when it comes to human factors”.

However, it is just those human factors that can’t be overlooked in successful change management.

While the dynamics between people always affect the organization’s ability to perform, the role of employees becomes even more significant in change. Ikonen points out that issues such as motivation, engagement and trust are decisive when it comes to successful transition.

“Humanity and business efficiency sound like opposite worlds, but they interact with each other very strongly. Tension often sends out impression that all results are achieved at the cost of employee well-being. Leaders must recognize and even accept these tensions, and deal with them in a tangible way”. 

The conflicting pressures of leadership

Especially during change, leaders face different kinds of expectations. Change must be successfully managed, but so do people, processes, and the business itself. To successfully carry out this balancing act, it is important to realize that every one of these four viewpoints must receive sufficient attention. 

“In change, the main focus must be on the future, so innovativeness is required”, Ikonen explains. “On the other hand, inner stability is essential as chaos makes any renewal difficult. The efforts to balance change and stability typically creates tension, but the only way to succeed is to engage employees properly”.

Owning the change

Especially when the operating environment creates pressure to change, top management has drafted visions and exchanged opinions before the rest of the company is barely aware of the situation. In this light, the resistance to change that leaders typically face from employees is quite understandable – it is caused mostly by the fact that they have not known about the difficult decisions leaders have already had to make.

“Change often brings ‘Things were so much better before’ or ‘This rationale behind the changes isn’t credible’ kind of opinions back to the surface”, Ikonen says. “Whether the company is downsizing, restructuring, or growing fast, for example through acquisitions, all those changes create their own types of resistance”.

The only way for leaders to overcome this resistance to change is through the combined outcome of dissatisfaction towards the present, belief in the future, and a credible plan to get there. Outi Ikonen emphasizes that this requires realistic approach and a plausible story about where the company is heading – and why.

In addition, the roadmap must be clear, and everyone must have a role in it. 

“The world keeps changing, but when the organization knows how to deal with it in an engaging and motivating way, it will end up in a lot better shape than where it was at the beginning”.

Read more: 
www.terveystalo.com/humanefficiency