We are living in times wherein change is the only constant. It is often referred to as the VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.
Change is happening unexpectedly and at a very fast pace. Leaders are expected to prepare their followers and organizations to be ready for change, but it's not possible to be fully ready for it.
For the first time in years, the workplace is occupied by different generations, namely baby boomers, Generation X, millennials and Generation Z. Managers must be equipped to deal with the complex and diverse needs and interests of these generations.
Furthermore, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the internet of things (IoT) require people to learn to exist with machines. Certain skills will be replaced with new skills that are driven by the new technologies that come with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. IoT and big data are now directly influencing our behaviors and practices, and organizations must change to accommodate this new world. Processes must be reengineered to accommodate the integration of people and machines. Managers and leaders have a huge responsibility to retrain their people to acquire new competences and skills.
When change hits, people are often not emotionally ready. They always plunge into a shock. Sometimes such a shock is devastating, and some people never recover from it. It's amazing how many people default into denial without knowing that they are doing it.
The reality is that no one likes change, especially when it's unclear if the change will be a beneficial one. Some people deny change openly, whereas others are subtle in their denial. Whatever way, denial of change is often costly at the individual, organizational and societal level. It is often the case that the affected land into the deep (bottom) of the change curve. It becomes a struggle to pull out of it because of the reluctance to accept that the ground has shifted, and they must look for the new way of living their lives or doing things. They could emotionally disintegrate and easily be lost forever.
Coaching is a practical intervention that can play a key role in helping managers and leaders explain possible changes facing their teams, improving readiness levels, and building the capacity of the organization.
Tools like mindfulness and meditation often used in coaching are very helpful to those affected by change. The practice gives these individuals the capacity to be fully present with the change they are dealing with. It is about being fully present without judging the experience, and will help the affected in understanding their current state of being.
Coaches cannot support and coach a client who has not accepted their current state of being. That's why it's the first objective. The second objective is for the client to paint their ideal future state of being. But they must not be preoccupied with that future at the expense of being fully present.
The coach and client will often agree on the coaching process to transition from the current state of being to the future state of being. The coach, however, never tells the client what to do; the client is responsible for their own agenda. The acceptance of change by the client generates energy and stamina to forge ahead in adjusting to the demands of the change journey. This helps pull the client out of the deep and plants them on the door of the exploration stage, as noted in the Scott and Jaffe Change Model, often used for coaching people through change stages.
The exploration stage is the most evasive, but once achieved, there is no turning back. It means that the client is in search of alternatives into new ways. Coaches can only guide their clients. They use questioning techniques to make the clients critically interrogate the options they are inclined to pursue. This is the stage before the commitment stage. It cannot be taken lightly.
At the commitment stage, the coach would like to see the client signing an emotional contract with the self. They are comfortable to adopt the new order of their lives and discard the old ways. They can no longer identify with their old self. They have a new identity, belief system, values, and are committed to entrenching these in their holistic system of being. It is at this stage that the coach is willing to let go. The client can be counted among the successes.
Only coaches who understand these stages of change management and apply them well can regard themselves as change management coaches. They support change agents in taking their organizations through the change curve in a sustainable manner.
