Unbranded Human Side of Change

THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHANGE

In this resource, you will find:

• What do we mean by the term ‘Organisational Change’?​

• How does Organisational Change affect us as humans?​

• How might we feel about change and why?​

• How can we navigate periods of Organisational Change?​

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What do we mean by the term Organisational Change?

Organisational change typically alters some or all the following contract features such as: ​

• Employer
• Work patterns
• Work location
• Pay band or other terms and conditions of service
• Numbers of posts
• Fundamental nature of roles and main responsibilities/duties

Press the shape to see some examples ​

Examples

How does Organisational Change affect us?

Change of any kind is hard for our brains to deal with. Consultant, speaker and author of ‘Neuroscience for Organisational Change,’ Hilary Scarlett explains why in the video below.

You can add subtitles and make this full screen once it begins.

Transcript

How does Organisational Change affect us?

Part of the challenge we face is that we are working in 21st century workplaces with brains that were designed for living on the savannah .

Our prefrontal cortex, where we do all our planning and manage emotions, has evolved. The rest of the brain has not changed much at all; it’s still ‘wired’ towards survival.

Alt text: cave drawings highlight a time when our brain was wired to survive.

How does Organisational Change affect us?

Turn over both cards before you find out more.

It means the brain cannot predict and certainty is taken away. Our brains find this very uncomfortable.​ ​

More details

Certainty

Uncertainty

Once we have certainty, we begin to know what the story is, which allows us to make meaning and tell ourselves a narrative about what is happening to us. We can begin to plan.​

In fact, the brain finds uncertainty so uncomfortable that we are better at dealing with bad news, even very bad news, than not knowing what the future holds.

What does this mean for us?

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Interesting fact

Is it possible to accept change?

This is the Kubler-Ross Change Curve:

Click on the numbers 1 and 2 to find out more about this model.

+ 1

Find out more about what this model means for you on the next page.

Is it possible to accept change?

What is the change curve?

What does this mean for me?

The Change Curve is a tool which can be used to understand the emotional stages of experiencing change and where people may be on their journey through this.

This can help us to validate the feelings we may be experiencing and navigate this journey of change.

More

‘This is just one change curve model; there are many more you can explore.'

5 top tips to help through Organisational Change

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Acknowledge the initial response to change and take up offers of support​.

Take the opportunity to be involved- you can offer ideas or ask.​

Gain certainty wherever possible- even with small details.​

Allow ourselves time to process​.

Recognise that there will be a journey towards acceptance – it’s unlikely to happen immediately.​

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Further resources and support

Work Life Central

Every Mind Matters

Podcast: a slight change of plan

Psychology today article

Maya Shankar has a podcast series where she blends compassionate storytelling with the science of human behavior to help us understand who we are, and who we become, in the face of a big change.

An article from psychology today called "What makes change difficult?" (average read time 5 minutes)

Further practical advice from NHS Better Health, wellbeing tips.

WorkLife Central has extended their offer of free access to their support and resources for our NHS employees through to 31 March 2025.

Examples of Organisational Change may include:

• Internal restructures​
• Changes in how services are commissioned or led​
• Transfers of staff to or from other service providers outside of the organisation ​
• Change of substantive work base ​
• Joined up working between organisations meaning different ways of working for staff​

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In this ‘fight or flight’ state, our brain can filter for threats. We may even perceive threats where they don’t even exist.

What this may look like

Suddenly the manager not saying “Good Morning” to us can be a worry at a conscious or subconscious level.

We may worry more

We may view colleagues as competitors and have less emotional control, which can impact our performance and cause us to go further into a negative spiral.

It can impact work and relationships

What does this mean?

As the time passes by, the curve begins to go upward and regains energy until the highest point, which is the stage of acceptance. This tells us is that we will ultimately experience a more comfortable acceptance of change, in time.

But it won't happen straight away...

It will be a journey through various different emotions before eventually some form of balance is reached.

Everyone experiences things at their own pace so everyone will be at different point on the curve. It is useful to know this so we can understand our own journey and that of our colleagues, who may take a different amount of time to experience this.

Alt text: decorative image of a journey

Try not to compare yourself and others as we all have our own journey.

The left axis shows a person’s energy levels and along the bottom the progression of time. Changes and energy change over time. The Change Curve starts with high levels of energy with shock and denial and it drops down at anger stage. The lowest energy is shown when the curve reaches the bottom point.

Full video transcript

0:00 [Music] 0:17 our brains find a change difficult 0:19 because for our brains it's all about 0:20 survival that's the key thing they want 0:22 to do is help us survive so in order to 0:24 help us survive there's two key things 0:26 our brains are constantly trying to do 0:27 it's about avoiding threat and it's 0:29 about seeking reward but most of all 0:31 it's about avoiding threat to avoid 0:34 threat what our brains want to do is 0:35 they want to be able to predict because 0:36 if they can predict what's going to 0:37 happen they could protect us better and 0:40 what change means is they can't predict 0:41 because they don't know what's going to 0:43 happen um so when our brains are face by

0:45 by change particularly change that we 0:47 can't control they go into a threat 0:49 State they go into flight or fight 0:50 people will be familiar with the term 0:52 and when that happens literally in our 0:54 brains, blood goes to those parts of the 0:56 brain that gets you ready to run away or 0:57 to fight and away from the pre frontal 1:00 cortex the part of our brain where we do 1:02 all our thinking and planning and 1:04 analytical thinking so when we're going 1:06 through change our brains get ready for 1:09 this flight or fight State um and get 1:11 distracted feel very threatened we begin 1:14 to see um threats in the workplace where 1:16 they don't even exist any threats that 1:18 are there we see them as much bigger 1:20 than they really are we start to see

1:22 colleagues as being a bit of a threat um 1:24 and we're constantly distracted try to 1:26 make sense of will I be all right will I 1:27 be okay and in fact there research and 1:30 to show that that the adult brain 1:32 going through lots of change is very 1:33 similar to that of of a Teenage brain so 1:36 where people are are much more emotional 1:39 um much more volatile in terms of of how 1:41 they respond to things much less easy to 1:43 reason with because we're in that very 1:45 emotional distractive state so that's 1:47 why we find change difficult because our 1:49 brains want to predict and change stops 1:51 Us doing that 1:58 [Music]

Interesting fact...

In a study by University College London (2016) subjects had either a 50% chance of receiving an electric shock or 100% chance. Monitoring subjects’ stress levels showed that people with only 50% chance were significantly more stressed than those with 100% chance. The certainty of receiving the bad outcome was preferable simply because it was certain and not unknown.