Change is hard work. And people should be recognized for making progress on the journey to behaviors that are new to them.
We’d spoken about the move from awareness to understanding to adoption to ownership. More important is the emotional journey that individuals take from shock, confusion, fear, anger, whatever (depending on how the message is delivered and the type of preparation they’ve been able to do) to understanding, belonging, possibility and optimism. Change managers and organizational development specialists can support employees along the way and minimize unproductive downtime in what a colleague of mine has called the “valley of despair.”