March 2009 Newsletter

News of redundancies abound right now. A lot of executives put all of their attention on those that regrettably have to leave the company. However, it’s probably the ones that are left behind that are really in need of your attention – they’re the ones who’ll enable your business to sink or swim in this brave new world.

In this month’s newsletter, you:unlimited looks at how you can successfully navigate the storm , and speaks to Rachel Gilmore, a facilitator adept at helping people to re:engage post-change.

Navigating the Storm

Every day right now, we hear about more lay-offs being announced. People who have been laid off rightfully get a lot of our attention and empathy. But what about those people who remain after the cuts have been made? They get less of our attention but that doesn’t mean that they’re not suffering and in need of our support too.

In this article we’re going to look at how you can support people through the rough seas and ensure that you emerge from the storm stronger, leaner and more focused than ever on achieving your vision.

We’ll cover:

• The benefits of planning

 • Communication – when and how

 • Avoiding the pitfalls

 • The importance of Honesty and Empathy

 • Staying future focused

Downsizing hurts, there’s no getting around that fact. But learning how to plan for it and how to guide people through the storm can make a significant impact on the future profitability of your company. Of course downsizing hurts those impacted directly, but what companies often underestimate is how it affects the morale of those left behind. The bury-your-head-in-the-sand syndrome means that executives often ignore the signs pointing to layoffs until it’s too late to plan for them properly, which leads to poorly executed change management and a seriously disgruntled workforce.

Accepting Reality
My favourite New York aphorism, which has never seemed more appropriate, is “It is what it is”. Accepting reality is only stage one however, stage two - finding pragmatic ways to address it - is where we really need to focus our attention.

So, we’re going to have to get better at dealing with ‘what is’. Better - more adept, more agile, more open - both as individuals and corporations. Deciding who needs to go is one thing. Managing the engagement of those left behind is something else altogether, because you’ll have fewer crew and yet you need the ship to go faster. Mismanage it and the effects of those feelings of helplessness and lack of engagement will manifest themselves in many ways. They produce an environment of withdrawal, risk-averse decisions, severely impaired morale, and excessive blaming.

So, what can be done to avoid such negative outcomes?

Communication is the catch-all answer, but not ‘communication’ as a lot of organisations understand it. Many executives believe that they’re communicating simply by passing on information to their employees, forgetting that communication is a two-way street. Giving people fair warning, communicating at key stages, and providing the opportunity for dialogue are all crucial elements that will ensure a less troubled transition. More is definitely more when it comes to communicating effectively.

Honesty
People don’t like being kept in the dark and the more meetings that happen behind closed doors, the more the rumour mill will be put into overdrive. However hard the truth is to hear, people will always prefer it to secrecy and rumours. Your reputation as an organisation stands or falls by the levels of honesty you exhibit, both during any potential downsizing and afterwards.

Trust is based on mutual respect. When employees discover what has been brewing without their knowledge or input, they see a blatant disrespect for their integrity which destroys trust and can require years to correct.

Empathy
Percy Barnevik said that “to downsize effectively you have to have empathy with the people who are losing their jobs." I’d go even further than that and say that you also have to have empathy for those that remain. It’s hard for them, too.

They’ve lost friends, colleagues, and possibly had to lay off people themselves. Their workload has probably increased, and the period of uncertainty that they’ve been navigating can leave them feeling exposed and vulnerable.

Empathy has never been more in demand.

Employ the do unto others adage, and try to get on the receiving end of your messages before you deliver them, anticipate how what you say will make people feel and you’ll instantly be more sensitive when you deliver information.

Providing a forum for people to discuss their concerns throughout the process is vital. There can be a tendency to try to sweep things under the carpet, to soldier on as if nothing had happened. Surviving employees will talk about what's happened irrespective of whether management does – and it’s more likely to be the hell-in-a-handcart conversation than a lean, mean, fighting machine one.

If you give people the platform to freely discuss what they’re going through you can vastly diminish recovery times. When there’s a refusal to recognize what’s really going on the management team risk coming across as aloof and uncaring, which can breed a further sense of helplessness to those on the ground. There’s the feeling of ‘what else is being kept from me?” which comes back to the loss of trust.

Forward Looking
Staying forward-looking and hopeful, but not blindly so, is crucial. Emotion is contagious and if you walk around looking stressed and panicky the likelihood is that your workforce will emulate that feeling. Staying positive and forward thinking, whilst admitting past failings with frankness, will demonstrate that you’re rooted on the ground and wedded to finding a solution that really works. Attempt to hide behind smoke and mirrors, with blind faith and/or denial and people will immediately smell a rat.

Instead focus on demonstrating a clear vision for people, and allow them to have a stake in that vision. Without this, the likelihood is that old patterns perpetuate, which will mean that the new-look company will be trapped in the same downward spiral. Stay positive and transparent and get people engaged in the solution and you’ll stand the best chance of achieving the vision.

Conclusion
So, while making lay-offs hurts, the degree to which it affects the long term health of the company can be seriously affected by how well you handle the process. Really focus on honest, timely communication – and aim for too much rather than risk withholding information. Remember to respect people’s dignity and give them the space to accept what’s happening and the opportunity to discuss how it affects them. This way you stand the best chance of accomplishing your goals and helping the organisation to flourish.

At you:unlimited we run programmes for both managers and for individuals impacted by downsizing, to help them help each other to re-engage. If you want to talk about how we can support you, you can check out the preview of our After the Storm workshop here, or call Simon on 020 7407 0044.

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Interview with Rachel Gilmore

What was the inspiration behind creating this programme?
Experience really. I’ve seen how, often when redundancies happen, a lot of money is directed at the people who are leaving the company. While this is usually to fulfil legal requirements, some companies are also good at giving training and support to people being made redundant.

While this is great, I also think they should spend as much money on those who are staying as those that are leaving, because it’s actually these people that are going to help to turn the company around. In the short term they’re likely to be dealing with a sense of loss, a greater workload and, of course, issues of motivation. It’s a pretty miserable place to be somewhere when people have been made redundant.

So, the inspiration emerged from the sense that equal attention should be paid to the people that are left behind as those that have been sent on their way. I don’t see that happening as much as it should. I think I also read an article around the same time on Survivor Syndrome, in the context of war and trauma and I was interested in the parallels. I realized that if that happens with a major trauma such as war or a tsunami then it must happen on a different scale within companies, because going through redundancies is a form of trauma, too.

What do you think the parallels are? How would people recognize it if either they or people in their business are experiencing survivor syndrome?
Survivor Syndrome was a term that was created to describe the reactions and behaviours of people who have survived massive adverse events such as the holocaust and war and although there is significant difference between that and corporate life, some similar reactions can occur. Redundancy and downsizing can cause trauma for people and therefore anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance are common characteristics.

Another commonality is that such survivors feel guilty that they have survived the trauma and in this case, their colleagues did not. A persistent sense of "when are they coming for me?” can invoke feelings of powerlessness and detachment and people can feel isolated and distrustful of hierarchy.

Withdrawal is not going to help to turn the business around, so we need to do all we can to help people remain engaged and focused.

What, for you, are the 3 most important things to managing redundancies effectively?
Transparency, communication and support - directed both at those who are going and those who are staying.

In terms of communication what are your priorities?
Keeping people as informed as possible, but more importantly giving people a forum or a place where they can discuss their concerns and ideas about things should be done. To help people deal with the change you need to give people the opportunity to communicate, not just in the traditional sense of how the company communicates with the people but to engage people in real two-way communication.

Talk to me about the importance of trust throughout the process.
Trust and transparency are closely linked. You’ve just got to do what you say you’re going to do. If you can’t do it for some reason, explain to people quite clearly why that is the case, don’t expect them to forget and try to sweep it under the carpet. That’s why communication is so important, as that’s about establishing trust around this whole process. If trust is broken then people become more cynical and more interested in gossiping than in trying to be productive and helping the company through the difficult times and looking forward

What about those people that are already part-way along the process, who don’t feel it’s going as well as it might.
Engage in dialogue, communication, discuss what went wrong and put safeguards in place to avoid this happening again.

What preparation do you make before having tough conversations with people?

• Plan it. Make sure it’s in a language that speaks to all people, not business speak.

• Communicate long term aims, strategies and vision.

• Communicate also how it will affect practical realities on a day-to-day basis

• Pitch it in a way that is accessible to people with different learning styles and how people like to take on information. Think like Myers Briggs – some people are big ideas/concept thinkers – paint an inspiring vision for them and they’ll be happy to change and move towards that, but others really need the detail and want to know exactly what’s going to change on a practical level, day-to-day.

• Adjust how you deliver your message according to the people that you’re talking to.

• Make sure that you’re not just speaking to them, make sure you’re listening to them too.

• Try to engage in communication in as small a group as possible, not just via one company-wide announcement, try to do it in groups, or have subsequent meetings with small groups, so that the issue can be talked through. Provide people with a variety of different forums.

Do you think anything positive can come out of the process, if well-executed?
Of course, all companies can benefit from economizing from time to time and the downsizing process and it’s usually only when they’re presented with a big challenge that they start thinking creatively. The toughest, most challenging circumstances can give birth to some beautiful creative new business ideas. In fact, it’s often only in those circumstances that this happens!

On an individual basis, roles are going to change and it’s about maximising the new opportunities for yourself. By stepping up to widen your own remit, so you can have a greater influence over the new environment and make it more interesting and challenging for yourself. Hopefully, by doing this, you might even be rewarded in the long term, either in financial terms or by means of a title or increased responsibility. Either way, you’ll be better armed and more agile for modern workplace.

If you want to talk more about any of the issues brought up here call Simon on 020 7407 0044.

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