How to Get Reluctant Team Members to Embrace Change

One of the hardest aspects of being a leader is managing a team through times of change in the workplace.

Whether it’s changing reporting lines, changing procedures or something more significant like a company restructure, it can often be difficult to get your team fully on board.

Inevitably, there are always going to be occasions when an individual or certain individuals struggle with change. However, a useful framework for managers to use who are leading a team through a change is the Pain Triangle.

Essentially, when it comes to handling change, there are three options that a person can choose to take:

Option 1 –  Maintain the status quo

This means that the individual is not getting on board with the change. They want to keep doing things the way it’s been done in the past.

Option 2 –  Get on board

The preferred option is that they get on board with the change – they embrace it and lean into it. Seeing it as an opportunity for growth, as opposed to something negative.

Option 3 – The individual has is to leave

While this might seem extreme, the third option is that the individual moves on from the business entirely if they are not willing to accept the change.

In order to help your team embrace change, you need to align your focus and communication so that the individual attaches more pain to the idea of not changing, as opposed to the change itself

I dive into this concept in greater detail in the video below, give it a watch and let me know in the comments how you could apply this to your own team.