Manage the People Introduction

People's response to change

When a company transitions, the people who work there are also required to transition. Managing people during this time can be challenging. The goal is to manage people during the transition successfully. Successful management takes employees through the journey of change, from being sceptical about the change to accepting the change and, finally, being excited by the change.

When it comes to managing people, every individual's response to change will be different; however, at a high level, they can be defined by these four categories:

●     Adopter

●     Bystander

●     Resistor

●     Casualty

The goal of the Manage the People function aims to find and manage the people who believe in and are committed to the transformation. These people advocate for the initiative ideas, helping them be more contagious. People are the company's most valuable asset. They will determine if the transformation programme succeeds.

Managing the people categories

The first of these is the Early Adopters, often people with ownership and expertise in the area(s) most affected by the change.  It is crucial to support them by providing tools and information to engage, publicly recognising & rewarding their efforts and successes.

Every project will have Resistors who actively (or passively) oppose or block the change. Resistors can come from any level in an organisation, and their influence should not be underestimated. An equally critical part of the manage the people function is identifying and managing the resistors as they can have the opposite effect, generate negative impacts, and oppose adoption.

The fourth category, which only sometimes transpires and sometimes overlaps with resistors, is the Casualties. These are employees in roles which will likely not survive the change. This process is challenging and necessary and should be managed and communicated early.