Change Management
Virginia Satir's model
(page 36)
Coping with change...
Stage 1: Late Status Quo
Encourage people to seek improvement information and concepts from outside the group.
Stage 2: Resistance
Help people to open up, become aware, and overcome the reaction to deny, avoid or blame.
Stage 3: Chaos
Help build a safe environment that enables people to focus on their feelings, acknowledge their fear, and use their support systems. Help management avoid any attempt to short circuit this stage with magical solutions. Acknowledge the the chaos, remember it won't last.
Roles and responsibilities are clarified. New ways of working are bedded down.
Stage 4: Practice and Integration
Offer reassurance and help finding new methods for coping with difficulties. Allow for practice in a safe environment, where mistakes are not too costly.
Stage 5: New Status Quo
Help people feel safe so they can practice.
Celebrate the successful implementation of change.
Remember the status quo won't last!
Performance stabilizes at a
higher level than in the Late Status Quo.
That's me!
Source:
http://stevenmsmith.com/ar-satir-change-model/
http://dhemery.com/articles/managing_yourself_through_change/
A new status quo is born.
Virginia Satir, a pioneer of family therapy, developed a model of how individuals experience change.
The Satir Change Model says that change is initiated by the introduction of a 'foreign element' into our lives.
As we cope with this unexpected or significant change, we predictably move through four stages: Late Status Quo, Chaos, Practice and Integration, and then into the New Status Quo.
A foreign element threatens the stability of familiar power structures. Most members resist by denying its validity, avoiding the issue, or blaming someone for causing the problem. These blocking tactics are accompanied by unconscious physical responses, such as shallow breathing and closed posture.
Further info...
Here are two Virginia Satir videos to watch in your own time (off topic but extremely interesting):
Oh no, it's a Foreign Element!
The loss of belonging and identity triggers anxiousness and vulnerability.
Stage 4: Practice and Integration
Everything is 'as normal', although not necessarily ideal. However, people understand their role and function.
Implicit and explicit rules underlie behavior. Members attach survival value to the rules, even if they are harmful. For example, completing a
quarterly report even though it's value has been
superseded by a different report just because 'that's the way we do things here'.
Managers of groups experiencing chaos should plan for group performance to plummet during this stage.
However, the chaos stage is vital to the transformation process.
The members discover a transforming idea that shows how the foreign element can benefit them.
The group becomes excited. New relationships emerge that offer the opportunity for identity and belonging.
With practice, performance improves rapidly.
What could be more of a Transforming Idea than
a pop tart cat flying on a rainbow?