As a project or program manager you’re likely to be dealing with change most of your working day. Others within your organization may be less used to change. Yet change is a fact of life. Without change an organization will cease to exist as products become obsolete, consumer taste moves on, and even political regimes change as populist views change.
As a program manager it can be very useful to understand the Kuber-Ross model, which is also known as the 5 Stages of Greif. The model describes how people handle grief when confronted with terminal illness. From a program manager’s perspective this model is a useful rule of thumb to aid us in understanding how people deal with change, and thus enables us to improve our communication skills and increase our sensitivity to, and understanding of, those undergoing change.
As they were originally described the 5 stages are as follows:
- Denial: “I feel fine. This can’t be happening to me”.
- Anger: “Why me? It’s not fair! Who is to blame for this?”
- Bargaining: “Just let me live long enough to see my children graduate.”
- Depression: “I’m going to die so what is the point!”.
- Acceptance: “I can’t fight it, so I may as well prepare for it”.
Translating this so it relates to program management and project management, we have the following:
- Shock: The initial shock on hearing the announcement.
- Denial: The belief that the change isn’t relevant to them or their work.
- Frustration: They will block this change; they are not going to allow this to happen!
- Depression: Everything they are currently doing seems pointless, and their confidence may falter.
- Experimentation: People start to question if this might just work for them? They begin to try things out and consider scenarios.
- Decisions: Finally they are coming to terms with what is happening and starting to feel more positive about the future. They are making decisions about what works and what doesn’t work.
- Integration: What was once new is now starting to be just the way things are done.
The change curve as it applies to program and project management is shown below:
The diagram above shows how we move across the change curve left to right as we gradually come to accept change. Additionally, in the diagram I’ve included some guidance on how to relate to people undergoing the change, in terms of your project management or program management style.
As you can see, during the initial phases of the change curve you should focus on clear and timely communication to all those affected. Any mismanagement of communication now will require extra work later to put right, so why not get it right first time? You should aim to ensure your communications are clear yet complete, along with being honest, and including all those affected.
As we transition and some people begin to feel depressed about the change, make sure you take the lead and actively let people know that your door is always open and you will listen sympathetically to their issues and reassure them as much as possible. In offering emotional support during this phase of the curve your aim is to minimise the amount of time spent in the depressed bottom phase of the curve.
Finally, as we transition towards generating ideas and the realisation that this might just work as a solution for them, your focus should be on supporting and guiding them, as they explore the possibilities and make decisions on how the change will work for them.
Summary
The changes curve provides a general rule of thumb as to how people handle change. It was first use to model how people come to terms with terminal illness. Knowledge of the change curve can help us as project and program managers improve how we interact with those undergoing change. Finally, for those of you who love classical music, why not check out this analogous comparison between a Mozart string quartet and the change curve.
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