Maintaining Morale During Change
by mollypenn
We know that organizational change of any kind, even good change, generates anxiety among those affected. In today’s economic climate, change often means contracting budgets, doing away with events or celebrations that cost money, and perhaps even laying off staff. So as managers, how do we deal with the incredible amount of anxiety we feel, while managing the anxiety of our staff and trying to keep morale high? Those are important questions consistent with business planning philosophy. The trick is, we are dealing with human emotions, which are not outcome or goal driven, they are process driven and systems driven.
People need several things when they are uncertain: they need a structure that helps them feel safe; they need to know their feelings are being heard and responded to; they need to feel invested in order to feel more comfortable with the uncertainty; and they need recognition of the power they do have when confronting situations they may not be able to control. These are all difficult things to establish in the midst of change, chaos or rapidly evolving situations. But they can be taken in order, building a process to manage anxiety and even tap into creative solutions, from the ground up.
Safe structures: whatever forum you establish to allow employees to air concerns or feelings needs to have clear parameters. The fact is, as their manager, you control the fate of your employees – their job, their salary, their reward structure. So the burden is on you to establish not only the structure (anonymous email chat room, small group meetings, brown bag lunches, etc.) but parameters that make participation in the structure safe.
- What are the rules of the safe zone? Your job is to clarify the rules – which means understanding first within yourself what is on the table and what is off the table. For example, criticizing management may be something you want off the table. Expressing concern about feeling overworked or undervalued may be on the table. You don’t want to suggest discussion topics – the idea is to have those be self-generated by the participants, but you do want to clarify what makes a topic appropriate vs. inappropriate.
- How do I know it is safe? You also must be crystal clear about what makes this a safe forum to air feelings. Maybe that means that you (the manager) are not there and that what is said in the room stays in the room. Maybe that means that the group can generate anonymous suggestions to management. Maybe that means you are part of the group but indemnify the participants from any “consequences” related to their speaking up about what concerns them. Again, the burden on you in this situation is to be clear first within yourself about what you will and won’t indemnify – for example expressing frustration at the loss of certain benefits may be indemnified, but one person continually stirring up or trying to organize people around an issue may be something you need to handle with that person directly, which is a consequence of speaking up. You have to be clear about what you can tolerate by way of feedback.
Feeling Heard: It is vital for employees to feel that their concerns have been heard, and carry some weight – that management cares about how they feel. This can be quite delicate when dealing with downsizing or budget cuts, because how they feel may not change the outcome. So management must be crystal clear about what is open to change and what is not, when soliciting employee’s thoughts and opinions. You want to establish a forum or mechanism whereby employees can express their thoughts and opinions, feel that they have been heard, and taken into consideration. You want to be careful not to set expectations that their concerns will necessarily affect the outcome. Some mechanisms are highlighted below, along with the issues for each mechanism:
- Anonymous methods (e-chat rooms; suggestion boxes; etc.) – the obvious benefit to these mechanisms is their anonymity. Thus employees can express their most heartfelt opinions while knowing that they are safe from any recriminations. The downsides to these mechanisms include lack of response to the feedback (because the person giving the feedback is not known) and that the employee won’t “own” their own feedback, which tends to give rise to the least acceptable comments. We recommend anonymous methods only when the change is gradual or long term and there is the possibility of responding to the feedback (like a suggestion box).
- Structured discussion groups – the greatest benefit to this mechanism is the human interaction. Members of the group can express their feelings and get support from other members of the group. They may even benefit from a forum to air feelings where management is present, but only in a listening mode. These kinds of groups must have very clear ground rules – (no personalized comments; feelings must relate to work; etc.).
- It is important to look carefully at how participants are selected – for example, there can be benefits and risks of assembling cross-departmental groups vs. hierarchical groups vs. departmental groups vs. random groups (also formal vs. informal groups). The factors you want to consider are: corporate culture (outspoken vs. covert); how hierarchical the organization is (deep organizations may mean too many levels of management present to make it a safe zone); inter-departmental relationships (it can be best to put departments together that do not otherwise have cause to interact); and organizational values (make sure whatever mechanism you use is consistent with your organizational values).
Feeling invested and powerful: if any aspect of the change situation is open to suggestions, or to being influenced by the employees, this can provide you with an invaluable opportunity to ensure that the employees feel invested in the outcome. Consider the situation and look at any aspects that are open to group consensus or individual suggestions. For example, if it is a budget cut that has to happen, you could say each department is responsible for cutting x% and let each department work out their own cuts. Or, if you must look at suspending or discontinuing certain programs, you could ask employees to help create criteria for evaluating which programs to discontinue. The only situation you cannot use a democratic process for is layoffs – department heads must be involved, but not because it is a democratic process, because that is their responsibility, and it is not one anyone else wants to share.
- First and foremost, management must identify, and communicate clearly what is open to suggestion and what is not.
- Management must also be clear about its role – it is the final decision maker. So to the extent you are soliciting input or suggestions, it is important to identify the limits of what is being offered, and to identify who will make the final decision.
- The more you can be transparent about your decision making process, the better. If you solicit feedback or input from staff, and then do not tell them why or how you chose one suggestion over another, it could set up a competitive, distrustful environment. It is important to be clear first within yourself what factors you will consider when trying to make a decision, in order to decide what you can be transparent about. Some of the factors you consider may not be appropriate to be shared – such as individual staff development concerns, or the greater expense associated with longer tenured employees.
There is no absolute formula for how to maintain employee morale during times of change. However, there are several key factors to keep in mind as a manger:
- Organizational values – make sure that your actions throughout the time of change are consistent with organizational values. If that is not possible, be prepared to explain why it was not possible to uphold those values, and be prepared to revisit the values in a democratic process after the change.
- Organizational culture – the more competitive your culture is, the more you want to focus on transparency and communication throughout the change process. Competitiveness breeds anxiety as does change, so the combined factors could make the atmosphere untenable without the anxiety reducers of communication and transparency. Organizational culture is the result of many different factors:
- Communication – it is important to notice the degree to which your organization relies heavily on unspoken communication (i.e. “it is their job to figure out how to do what I want done”) vs. spoken communication (i.e. “this is what I want done, and here are my suggestions for how your might do it, but let me know what you decide is the best method.”). Understanding where your organization sits on the communication continuum will give you cues as to your organizational culture.
- Reward systems – consider how performance is recognized and rewarded in your culture. Is it very outcomes driven – meaning results are rewarded regardless of how they were obtained, or is it process focused – meaning the learning and development process is as important as the outcomes produced?
- Accountability – is accountability shared or held individually (both positive and negative)? Do individuals get recognition or consequences based on their own actions, or based on the actions of a group? If accountability is held by groups rather than individuals, then anxiety will be shared and supported, and therefore lower than if it is held by individuals.
- Recognition – beyond the formal reward systems, how are employees recognized and for what kind of behavior? Do you have a monthly general birthday party? Is there an employee of the month? Do you meet with employees outside of performance management time to let them know you recognize their good performance?
A final note to managers – know yourself. Take a good look at yourself and your systems of managing your own morale in order to understand how to deal with change and maintain employee morale. Does your board hold you to task, or do they support you? Do you have family, friends and colleagues to talk to about your own anxiety? How do you process anxiety – do you shut down, do you talk about it, do you jump into action? All of these behaviors will give you clues for how to handle anxiety in your employees. Your own behavior as a manager sets the standard for corporate culture. Employees will often exhibit similar behavior characteristics for how they manage stress as their CEO. So do what you can (and use those same methods for your employees) to keep your own anxiety low and stay constructive.
