Change Cycles

One of the aspects of life that we overtly recognise when we have anAgileMind is change. Change is emotionally challenging because we are recognising that things will be different tomorrow. This may involve us in loss of things we value today. There is always uncertainty about what we will gain tomorrow. Stress, reduced effectiveness and changed behaviour are typical responses when we experience change.

In A Nutshell

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Change is at the heart of anAgileMind. Inspect and Adapt is a fundamental behaviour that implies change. How well we respond to change reflects our success at adopting the agile mindset.

To meet the challenge of change constructively we must understand our responses to promised change and how those responses are going to evolve as the change happens in front of us. Various change cycles - models of how we respond to change - have been suggested. The cycles of change focus on how our emotional balance and effectiveness is first disturbed by change and then returns to a more equilibrium level as the change progresses.

Like all models, change cycles are wrong. Fortunately they are still useful. At best these models are huge simplifications of our emotional responses to change. They also simplify the complexity we face into, all the time. Our reality is that we all suffer multiple simultaneous change cycles.

Change at work, change at home, change in health, change in social life, change in economics and politics. All these triggers of change mean that we experience a slew of emotions. Some are positive as cycles of change end and our new situation becomes clearer. At the same time other change cycles will be just beginning creating negative emotions.

Three stages to change Endings, Neutral Zone, New Beginnings — Bridges Transition Model

Bridges’ Transition Model

One of the more concise views of the change cycle. Introduces the very real idea that change begins with Endings. The status quo is coming to an end to be replaced by something new. Typical reactions are a slew of negative emotions and a reduction in work effectiveness.

The Neutral Zone is characterised by the most negative feelings and lowest levels of effectiveness during the change.

New Beginnings are characterised by the return of positive emotions and new commitment. Levels of effectiveness rise. If the change is a good one, our effectiveness eventually exceeds that realised before the change.

Seven stages of change shock, denial, frustration, depression, experiment, decision, integration — Kubler-Ross Change Cycle

Kubler-Ross Change Cycle

This model provides an elaboration of Bridge’s Transition model. It identifies 7 steps through the change cycle. Versions of this model also introduce the danger that at the lowest emotional point of the cycle we may simply choose to exit the change. We suffer the pain of the early stages without experiencing the subsequent gains the change delivers.

The first two stages - Shock and Denial - equate to endings in Bridge’s model. Frustration and Depression can be mapped onto the neutral zone. The last three stages Experiment, Decision and Integration relate to new beginnings.

The Change Cycle

The Change Cycle is similar to the Kubler-Ross view of how change impacts us emotionally. It presents six stages of change and makes explicit reference to the danger zone where we choose to exit from the change cycle.

One of the big advantages of the way the Change Cycle is presented is that it often talks about the boundaries between each of the stages. This can encourage us to understand how we make progress through the change cycle. It can also help us diagnose exactly where in the change cycle we currently are.

Impact of Personality Types

How we navigate any cycle of change depends on many factors. A key influence is to think about our personality type. If we are naturally curious and inquiring, we will probably navigate the early stages of the change cycle relatively quickly. We move to experiment (Kubler-Ross) or discovery (Change Cycle) quite quickly, but then may spend some time confirming our understanding and evaluating alternatives before integrating ourselves into the new world.

Recognition of change may also be retrospective. A personal observation is that, by the time I recognise I am suffering a change cycle, I have typically arrived at the bottom of the cycle. It is the act of recognition of change that starts to drive me towards integrating the new ideas.