Catherine Smithson presented on addressing change fatigue through a webinar hosted by Being Human. She discussed why change fatigue needs to be addressed due to its negative impacts. Her presentation covered recognizing the symptoms of change fatigue at the individual, project, and organizational levels. She also discussed common causes like too much change and poorly managed change. Finally, she provided tips to cure change fatigue such as influencing executives to prioritize change, managing the change portfolio more effectively, improving change management practices, and building resilience among managers and teams.

1. Change Community of Practice Webinars
Change Fatigue: Causes and Cures
Presented by
Catherine Smithson
June 2016

2. Introducing Being Human
• Founded in 1993
• Our mission: develop
change-capable people and
organisations so they
achieve the benefits of
change.
• 10th anniversary as Prosci’s
Primary Affiliate in Australia
and New Zealand.
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3. Agenda
• Why we need to address
change fatigue
• Best practices update
• Recognise the symptoms
• Understand the causes
• Reduce the risks
• Your experiences?
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4. Why we need to address Change Fatigue
1. Impact on people – physical
and mental health
2. Impact on organisation’s
ability to attract and retain
quality people
3. Lasting impact on
employee engagement and
readiness for change
4. Impact on results and
benefits of change
initiatives
5. Impact on organisational
results or even survival
6. A barrier to creating a
change ready, agile
organisation
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5. Research update
Prosci 2016 Best Practices in Change Management
Benchmarking Report
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37% of participants
indicated saturation was
concentrated in localised
areas within the
organisation and
Information Technology
(IT) was the most
saturated area.
About 42% of
participants, an increase
of 10% from 2014, said
they actively manage
the portfolio of change,
but about 45% do not
Industries above the
global average include:
• Insurance
• Health Care
• Government – Fed
• Consumer Goods
Manufacturing
• Telecommunications
• Utilities
• Education Services
• Information Services
• Banking
Australia/New Zealand
(83%) and United States
(82%) were above the
global average for being
near or at the point of
change saturation
Still only 20% of
participants said there
was a high level of
interest in managing the
change portfolio
78% of participants
identified being near or
past the point of
saturation, up from 77%
in 2014 and 73% in 2012

7. Quotable quotes
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“We’ve had wave after wave of
change for years now... our people
are asking when things will get
back to normal”.
“Our managers are saying
there are too many number
one priorities and they don’t
know what’s important”.
“Our project teams can’t get the
right SMEs to contribute, people
don’t want any more work on top
of their day job”.
“The volume of change
around here is always
mentioned in exit
interviews with staff who
have resigned”.
“On the one hand we invest heavily in building
employee engagement but on the other hand we
undo the good work with creating
change fatigue.”

9. Recognise the symptoms – individual level
• Employees, managers,
executives can become:
• disengaged
• frustrated
• fatigued
• resistant
• confused
• cynical and skeptical
• All stages of the ADKAR®
process of change are
impacted
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Source: Prosci Tutorial “Change saturation and the importance of establishing
and managing the portfolio of change”
http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-saturation-white-paper.htm

10. Focus on the change professional
• We can burn out too!
• Can you recognise your own
change fatigue?
• Working harder/longer but
achieving less
• Frustration with individuals
and the organisation
• Taking on other people’s roles
to fill gap
• Style changes from coaching/
facilitation to lecturing and
debating/standing on
soapbox
• How do you care for yourself?
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11. Recognise the symptoms – project level
• Change initiatives do not
realise benefits
• Lack of resources made
available to project teams
from the business e.g.
SMEs
• Delays, budget overruns,
rework
• Project team staff turnover
• Changes are not sustained
• Others?
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Source: Prosci Tutorial “Change saturation and the importance of establishing
and managing the portfolio of change”
http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-saturation-white-paper.htm

12. Recognise the symptoms - organisational level
• Employee absenteeism
• Loss of valued employees/
managers/executives/
project teams
• Difficulty recruiting talent –
employment brand
impacted
• Low employee
engagement
• Strategies and business
objectives are not
achieved/partially achieved
• Others?
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15. Cause 1: Too much change
• “We don’t even know how
many changes we have
underway”
• The 101 Priorities Syndrome
• Lack of meaningful
prioritisation
• Changes not sequenced
effectively to balance the load
• Projects/activities not stopped
• Easy to say, hard to do:
• At the centre of how Executives
develop strategy and business
planning
• Only Executives can address it
• But they typically don’t
experience the effects
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16. Cause 2: Poorly managed change
• Inadequate Change
Management
• High risk, high impact
changes not identified or
managed pro-actively
• Impacted groups not identified
• Not assessed for impact and
readiness
• People challenges of the
change not adequately
understood or managed =
increased risk
• Change Sponsors and
leaders at all levels lack
change management
capability, role clarity
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17. Cures: Top 5 tips
1. Influence executives to
prioritize and sequence
the change agenda
• Work with the group/s with
which you are most influential
• Executives – are you a trusted
advisor?
• PMO – Program Manager
• Project Manager/s and teams
• HR
• Managers
• Choose carefully and be clear
on your outcomes, messages
and timing
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18. Cures: Top 5 tips
• Get the facts and data that will influence Executives:
• Connect with strategy and their goals and concerns
• Number of changes underway/by time/type/level/function/location
• Impacted groups – VS End users. “Who needs to adopt and use the
change for the expected benefits to be achieved?”
• Risk Assessment for each group for each change
• Collect examples and stories
• Suggested tools:
• Prosci CMROI Calculator
• Heat Maps
• Prosci People Risk Assessment
• Use preferred senders – PMO, PMs, managers -maybe not YOU
• What is your recommendation? What’s the WIIFM for your audience?
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19. Cures: Top 5 tips
2. Move to managing the
change portfolio
• Build support
• Who will be the end user of
the outputs?
• Focus on the end goal and
the change in behaviour not
the technology solution
• New tools - Ralleo cloud
based enterprise
management tool available
from Being Human
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20. Cures: Top 5 tips
3. Improve the
effectiveness of Change
Management
• Choose 1 or 2 key changes and
let the results speak for
themselves
• Small gains = big wins
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21. Cures: Top 5 tips
4. Support managers to re-energise themselves and
their teams
• Clear priorities, constantly reiterated and demonstrated
• Recognition of good work, towards the change and in the past
• Feeling valued or treated respectfully
• Listen to and encourage team members
• Clarify when managers and teams can contribute to decisions
• Having pride in their organisation - even when the change is in response
to a difficult situation
• Clear, short communication, especially about progress
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22. Cures: Top 5 tips
5. Build resilience among
managers and teams
• Change is here to stay
• What can we do to become
more resilient and support
each other?
• Enlist HR/L&D/HR
professionals
• Resilience Workshops
available from Being Human
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24. Resources
• Ralleo Enterprise
Change Management
tool – contact us
• www.prosci.portal.com
• Prosci CMROI
Calculator
• Prosci PCT Analyzer
• ADKAR® Dashboard
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25. More info
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