This document provides an overview of the process of change according to the natural change cycle. It discusses how change can be seen as a threat but is actually a natural process. The natural change cycle involves letting go of old attachments and exploring a new situation without judgments. It emphasizes adopting a learning mindset and gaining new skills to fully integrate change. The goal is to progress from resisting change to willingly accepting and adapting to new situations.

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The Process of Change
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
The Process of Change

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The Process of Change
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
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The Process of Change
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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The Process of Change
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
Every one of us goes through the process of change in our
lives, from birth to death and all other life changes in
between. Sometimes these are natural processes, such as
ageing; sometimes the change comes out of the blue such
as an unexpected bereavement and sometimes we initiate
the change ourselves. In all cases, the stages of changing are
the same. Whether the change is successful or not depends
on whether we see it as a painful process to be resisted or
an opportunity for personal growth.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
UGG AND BOGG
Ugg and Bogg have operated successfully for some years as
official carriers. Between them they have supplied all the
cave's water needs, have dragged in the dinosaur carcass
and collected roots and berries. Because of their strength
and expertise they are the official bearers of King Og. As a
result, they are accorded privileges not given to others such
as extra pterodactyl and a place near the fire.
One day, as Ugg and Bogg are carrying a load into the cave,
Ack bursts through the bushes shouting with excitement
and carrying a smooth long piece of wood with two circular
flat cross-sections of tree on each end...

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TYPES OF CHANGE
There are three starting points for change: external
pressures; internal pressures; or proactive change.
1. External change arises because of changes in the
environment that force organisations and individuals to
change.
2. Internal change arises when the organisation and
individuals within the organisation recognise. pressing
needs to update, improve or re-organise
3. Proactive change arises when, regardless of pressing
needs, the organisation takes its own decision to
change.
All three types of change can be experienced by individuals
in an organisation; in extreme cases they may all be
happening at the same time. The result can be that
individuals see them as major threats and resist them.

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CHANGE AS THREAT
When change is seen as a threat, we react as we would to
any threat: we run away from it or fight it.
In the Reluctant Change Cycle, we are likely to go through
each of these stages...
Flight: flight is characterised by ignoring the change,
denying it or pretending it isn't happening.
Fight: fight is characterised by resistance, seeking allies,
dragging your feet; out-and-out opposition.
Maybe: when we have exhausted all our fight-flight
responses and the change is still there, we start to
reluctantly explore the possibilities in the change. This is the
"maybe" stage. As we learn to live with the change, "maybe"
becomes at first a hesitant "yes" and finally a committed
"yes".

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MTL Course Topics
TAKING PEOPLE WITH YOU
Change in any form can be traumatic. It is even more
traumatic if it comes rapidly, incessantly and over too short
a time period. Alvin Toffler says that people can go into a
state of near-physical shock, what he calls "future shock",
when faced with overwhelming change.
But change is nothing abnormal or unnatural. We manage it
in our own lives and so should be able to accept it in our
working lives. There are, however, a number of essential
steps if we want to take people with us...
1. understand people's fears
2. prepare people by creating the right conditions for
change in the organisation
3. involve people if the changes affect them personally
4. communicate incessantly
5. avoid making change a battleground for conflict
6. follow the steps of the natural change process.

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NATURAL CHANGE
The seven-stage model of the Growth-Change cycle, is
adapted from Kurt Lewin's model of how each of us
manages the change processes in our own lives. The model
is based on the change cycle we all experience when we are
born into a new world as babies and how we learn to cope
with this world in our early years.
The stages of the natural change process are...
1. new birth: let go of old attachments
2. 0 - 6 months: be in the new situation
3. 6 - 18 months: explore the new situation
4. 18 months - 3 years: think about your new world
5. 3 - 6 years: develop your new identity
6. 6 - 12 years: learn new coping skills
7. 12 - 18 years: complete the old cycle and begin a new
one.

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LETTING GO
Attachments are the things we cling to in life because we
believe they protect us, make us feel good or give us the
sense of power over our lives and others.
Because we believe in the power of attachments to make us
feel safe, comfortable and strong, their loss is a threat
because it leaves us feeling vulnerable and powerless.
But attachments are also limiting. They belong to the person
we were before. Their power is a power that is no longer
relevant to the changed situation. If we cling to them, not
only do they fail to give us any power from the new
situation, they stop us making the leap into the new.
If we think of the natural change process, birth is only
possible when we let go of the security of our mother's
womb and venture into a totally new world.

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ATTACHMENTS TO THE PAST
There are three types of attachments we have to the past:
security attachments; feeling good attachments; and power
attachments.
1. Security attachments include: status, job title,
experience; knowledge and expertise; connections; past
performance; possessions and money; old skills. They are
the attachments of organisational hierarchies.
2. Feelings attachments include: being needed by others;
being admired by others; being emotionally dependent on
others. They are the attachments associated with
membership of a well-established group.
3. Power attachments include: a position of strength;
freedom to do what you want; the belief that you are
morally superior to others. They are the attachments of
rules and procedures of the past.

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PERSONAL GROWTH
Significant personal growth comes from letting go of our old
attachments and learning to live without them...
1. People attached to being strong grow when they have
to feel weak;
2. People attached to doing what they want grow when
they learn to become committed;
3. People attached to being right grow when they face up
to their fallibility;
4. People attached to success grow when they accept
failure;
5. People attached to being dependent grow when they
stand on their own two feet;
6. People attached to looking before they leap grow when
they leap before they look;
7. People attached to wanting to feel safe grow when they
take risks;
8. People attached to comforts grow when they
experience deprivation.

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JUST BE
Allowing yourself simply to be in a new situation without
thinking about it, doing anything about it or even
responding to how you feel about it, is a crucial early stage
in the change process. It means you can take your time just
getting used to things.
In the early moments of a new training course, a wise
trainer will allow her trainees to just sit and tune in to
where they are.
A good driving instructor will allow his learner driver to just
sit in the driving seat on their first lesson, doing nothing
until he or she is ready.
When you find yourself in a new situation which you can't
understand, just stop trying and let yourself be in it for a
while. This is how as new-born babies we all experienced
the world.

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DO AND EXPLORE
The third stage in the process of change is the stage of
exploration, when we start to find out what the new
situation is about.
As children, we are natural explorers: endlessly curious,
determined to find ways forward and naturally confident
that we will make discoveries. As adults, we want the quick
and easy answer.
Karl Weick describes the difference between adults and
children as the difference between bees and flies. If a bee
and a fly are placed in an open jar which then has its glass
bottom placed against a window pane, the bee will head
straight for the light and try to fly out. It will repeatedly
divebomb into the glass at the bottom. The fly on the other
hand will not follow the bee's example. Instead, he will dive
frantically around the jar, exploring every corner of the jar
until he finds a way out.

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FREE-FLOW THINKING
Each of us has a huge power of thinking in our brains but it
is a form of thinking called "free-flow" thinking that is the
most useful when adjusting to change.
Free-flow thinking is distinctly different from conscious
analytical thinking. Whereas the analytical process uses
scientific data to make sense of the world, calling on what
we know from the past, such thinking is useless when we
are in a new situation. Free-flow thinking allows us to be
open to new ideas, new influences and new patterns
without trying to make sense of them.
Free-flow thinking can be accessed by dropping all thoughts
of the past and the future and simply being alive to present
awareness. It does not require answers to present
problems. It is fully accepting. It is the form of thinking we
use as small children in the course of our first major life
change.

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Change Management
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NEW IDENTITY
We can change at a superficial level by acquiring things we
don't have now, such as a new job, a new set of clothes, a
new car. But these things do not bring about real change.
That only happens when we learn to accept who we are
with all our faults and imperfections. When we stop wanting
to be someone else and learn to accept our own true
identity, then we take a huge step towards personal change.
"Change occurs when you become what you are, not when
you try to become what you are not. Change does not occur
by resolves to "do better", by "trying", by demands from
authority figures, or by pleading, persuasion, or
interpretations from Important Others.
Paradoxically, change seems to happen when you have
abandoned the chase after what you want to be (or think
you should be) and have accepted and fully experienced
what you are." (Janette Rainwater)

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FROM TOURIST TO CITIZEN
Thomas McKee, president of change management
consultants Advantage Point Systems, compares managing
change to a person moving to a foreign country.
He or she moves through 5 stages:
1. The Tourist Stage when we’re only visiting with no plan to
stay. Everyone starts here but it isn’t real.
2. The Foreigner Stage with its loss of security, familiarity,
and significance. It’s like you’ve let go of one trapeze with
one hand but don’t see where the next one is coming from.
And there’s no safety net.
3. The Neighbour Stage when you start to make contact
with others who are in the same boat as you or once were.
4. The Explorer Stage when you venture out bit by bit to
discover the new environment
5. The Citizen Stage when with new skills, new security, and
new confidence, you at last feel you belong.

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COPING SKILLS
Change and new skills are inextricably linked. Change is
often instigated by the need to learn a new skill, such as the
need to drive a car, or may be the result of changes imposed
by others.
Learning a new skill has three important benefits...
1. it provides us with the means to do something we
couldn't do before
2. it enables us to use the skill for the benefit of others
and so develops our interpersonal skills
3. it enables us to practise our personal learning skills and
so strengthens our ability to handle the next life change.
The process of lifelong change can be seen as a process in
lifelong skill learning.

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INTEGRATION AND COMPLETION
Ten workers were made redundant from a knitwear factory
in an old mill town. Eight of the workers complained, went
on strike, took their case to an industrial tribunal, and
exhausted themselves in meetings with their union and
solicitors. After much effort, they regarded it as a success
that, although they did not regain their jobs, they won some
extra compensation.
At the same time, the other two accepted the situation,
decided that there was no future in the old industry anyway,
used their notice period to explore possible opportunities,
thought carefully about what they wanted to do and be and
took steps to learn the new skills. One now teaches to
handicapped children and the other has started a soft toy
business.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
The Process of Change
Change Management
MTL Course Topics