Pink Elephant Blog
How to Get Your Team on Board with Change – The Concepts of Belonging and Un-Belonging
In their Harvard Business Review article, How to Get Your Team on Board with a Major Change, Deborah Rowland, Nicole Brauckmann, and Michael Thorley report that ”Most change management has shifted from a simplistic, top-down, ‘create a vision, change the structure, roll out the new program, and get buy-in’ approach to more emergent, empowered, and purpose-led approaches. But leading big, complex change is still a struggle — the rate of failure for transformation projects remains stubbornly high.”
The authors determined – in accordance with their research and professional work – that a desired emotional outcome is essential to making change happen, which they define as belonging. They describe this as “the survival-based belonging that enables any human infant to make it to adulthood and any human adult to fully function in collective settings they give loyalty to and receive identity from. Change will always threaten this kind of belonging and challenge its dearly held loyalties.”
They also describe a type of ‘un-belonging’, which they explain as “building others’ capacity to detach from past loyalties… and being able to stand at a distance from any strong belief group to allow novel solutions to emerge.”
The trio collectively provides tactics they have identified to drive change through belonging…
Four Strategies to Drive Change
- Be mindful of your own emotions: It’s vital for leaders to master a skill “being before doing”: tuning into and regulating one’s own mental and emotional reactions to experiences. When we intentionally bring our attention to the present moment – for example, by focusing on our breathing – we increase our awareness of all that is going on in and around us without immediate judgement. This preserves our thinking and decision-making abilities, stops our brains from reacting impulsively, and opens the opportunity to assess different options.
- Identify what people are asking to preserve – and why: Look beyond what seems like resistance to or an inability to change and perceive what people treasure and protect. It will enable you to address and challenge deep loyalties with insight and respect.
- Lead difficult conversations: To help your team see not only what needs to change, but why it needs to change, you must lead conversations that explore their discomfort and help them see that as a necessary change companion.
- Consider the prize and the price of change: No big change comes without a price tag. And because they’re human, leaders tend to overestimate the benefits and downplay the costs. When you name and work with both, you can build true belonging, not false loyalty.
“Attending to un-belonging – both your own as well as your employees’ – is a key element of successfully stewarding change.”
At Pink Elephant, we define organizational change management (OCM) as a business discipline that is focused on the people side of change. An OCM discipline and practice is needed whenever an organization undertakes a program or project that changes the way people work, their roles and responsibilities, and their working relationships with their teams or their management – as well as to the organization’s strategy, business model, operating model, or culture.
Want to Learn More?
Pink Elephant’s organizational change management portfolio offers two comprehensive certification courses that both include our proprietary Pink 20/20 change model that provides a structured approach for leading a change initiative:
- Organizational Change Management Essentials: Learn the right way to effectively lead, manage, and support transformational change in your organization. In addition to managing the change process itself, the key to successfully leading a change initiative is focusing on the people and cultural side of change. You will gain an understanding of the four major areas that need to be addressed, along with the applicable concepts, terms, principles, models, and approaches that lead to successful change.
- Organizational Change Management Applied: Learn how to apply organizational change management concepts, theories, and models within your organization. This experiential-learning course goes beyond theory to provide actionable advice and tools for leading the people side of change. It utilizes several case-study exercises and Pink’s own 20/20 change model to provide a structured approach to leading organizational change.
An entire track of organizational change management sessions that will cover the latest knowledge and best practices, including several case studies from progressive and forward-thinking senior leaders, will be presented at Pink23 – the 26th International IT Service Management Conference and Exhibition being held at the incomparable Bellagio in Las Vegas from February 26-March 1, 2023. Plus, you can learn practical tips from the dynamic and compelling Chester Elton – the world’s #2 top organizational culture expert and #4 top leadership expert. The program is under development, but there are many speakers already confirmed. Click here for more details and to register for Pink23.
Stay in the Loop
Keep up to date with all Pink happenings – including news about conferences, ITSM courses special offers and educational articles/webinars – by simply signing up for our e-newsletter.
Like this article? 
Comments