Understanding the Losses Leaders Ask Others to Take for Change

In any organizational change, leaders often focus on the gains: a more efficient process, a stronger team culture, or improved performance. Maybe the end-goal of the change is used to motivate others to go through the challenges and learning-curves of it. Other times, it might be seem as a saving grace for inefficiencies, slowdowns, or other detractors of progress in an organization.

Whatever the case may be, change in organizations is usually portrayed from a positive point of view by those in seats of authority. But the human experience shows that change is not always viewed as positive. Why is this? Because change comes with a cost, often in the form of loss. Loss is what people fear in the face of change.

What does loss look like in the organization setting? Loss might be of stability, familiar routines, or long-standing ways of doing things. It may also look like a loss of perceived respect and admiration by those with formal (and sometimes informal) authority. Finally, it may also look like a loss in identity, or a loss of purpose.

Asking people to support your change initiative(s) involves asking them to change as well - both in their beliefs and behaviors. To ask people to change, therefore, also means understanding the losses they must endure. Ignoring those losses - perceived or otherwise - only decreases your chances of making meaningful progress.

So how do you adequately acknowledge the losses that people may take in the face of change?

Here are a few steps to keep in mind:

1. Acknowledge the losses. This is a step most people ignore. Acknowledging the losses starts with admitting that your change will involve loss in some form or fashion. People need to feel like their losses are - at the very least - being acknowledged by those who are driving change in any organization or system (thinking government as well). People can talk about the positives of change until they are blue in the face, but to admit to your own people that they must also suffer losses? That's difficult. So understanding that a loss may occur is crucial ... but it is also insufficient without the next step:

   
   

2. Learn what the losses are. If people do this step, it is usually done poorly. Most people do not feel a generalized acknowledgement of what they may lose is sufficient enough for them to feel seen and heard. You will need to take the time to learn what you are asking people to give up when they join you on your journey towards change. This typically look like talking with key stakeholders about what losses they are potentially taking - both personally and to their teams/departments.

   
   

   One tip on this - do not assume the losses will be the same across the organization. Acknowledge that they have potential losses, and learn what they may be. Once you understand what they have to lose lose, then re-acknowledge and validate the specific losses they may take.

   
   

3. Find a shared purpose for the long-term vision. People are more likely to accept loss when they understand the bigger picture. By communicating the why and what of the change—including the anticipated benefits for individuals and the organization—you can build a shared sense of purpose that makes the change feel worthwhile. That shared purpose towards the long-term vision is key if you are asking people to sustain certain levels of loss along the way.

   
   

4. Pace the losses at a rate your people can tolerate. It is one thing to ask people to accept potential losses in the future - however, it is a much bigger ask to take those losses all at once. Your key stakeholders and their people are human, and people can only sustain so much loss without breaking or pushing back. So give people time to sustain the losses associated with change.

   
   

The Takeaways:

Change - no matter how positive or beneficial you think it is - will involve loss. At the end of the day, the fear of change people have is rooted in loss. By acting on the steps above, you will give your organization and its people a fighting chance to make progress on even the toughest change initiatives.