Your Workers Probably Think You Stink At Managing Change. Here’s How To Fix That

This article, written by Kit Eaton, was originally published on Inc.com.

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change,” according to renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. By that measure, the average manager is duller than a dusty rock orbiting a distant moon, according to new research that shows how bad organizations are at managing change. Data from Virginia-based management consulting firm Eagle Hill Consulting found that a huge majority of employees across the country, across generations, feel this way about their employer. The news may prompt you to change how you communicate with your workers when big changes are afoot.

In fact, in Eagle Hill’s survey of over 1,400 full-time and part-time US workers, some three in every four workers feel this way—a statistic so large it can’t be an anomaly, nor easily dismissed as sour grapes complaints from disgruntled staff whose companies have undergone changes. 

There are some stark variations in the data though, with different generations having very different feelings about organization-wide changes, marking what Eagle Hill’s press release calls “generational divides, including differences in enthusiasm, stress, motivations, and perceived benefits of change that dramatically shape how employees experience transformation.”

Gen-Z, the data show, is the “most optimistic workforce cohort” when it comes to change, with 70 percent saying “process changes made their organization better.” Only 45 percent of Baby Boomers feel the same, compared to just 36 percent of Gen-X workers (the weary “forgotten” generation that’s busy trying to juggle work-life balance and being the first generation caring both for their kids and aging parents at the same time.) Eagle’s data shows just how disheartened Gen-X is, with just three percent saying that “return-to-office changes improved their organizations,” representing the “largest generational gap in the survey.”

When it comes to feeling supported during change, the older generations also seem to feel worse: with just 18 percent of Baby Boomers saying their organization makes change easy to “embrace,” and only 20 percent of Gen-X agreeing. 

Change, like launching work habit-upending tech like AI, mergers or dramatic business pivots, can be emotionally challenging, of course, and workers turn to their colleagues and workplace friends for support under transformational situations. More than one in four Gen-Z workers say workplace friends are their “most influential change supporters,” but just 23 percent of Millennials agree, and only 11 to 12 percent of older workers feel this way (again supporting the notion older workers are tired out, as well as underlining a trend that says the “workplace bestie” is a fading phenomenon.)

The press release quotes Melissa Jezior, Eagle Hill’s president and chief executive officer, explaining that the “findings point to a fundamental shift: a one-size-fits-all approach to change management is no longer sufficient.” If company management wants to make changes and see them “stick,” with renewed business habits and even cultural changes, leaders must tackle it as a “multi-generational experience, anchored in a shared purpose and tied to the different motivations, needs, and expectations that each generation brings to work.”

Jezior also set out how this data could be used during change-management processes at your company. “Smart leaders will use this research as a roadmap,” Jezior thinks. To gain worker support for large-scale business changes, companies need to take pains to properly explain why changes are happening, and communicate effectively—which in this case needs a different set of explanations and perhaps more hands-on support for older workers than younger ones. Generating a sense of “shared purpose,” could go a long way to help, Jezior said. 

Jezior’s words here back up plenty of existing research pointing to effective ways to manage change at an organizational level.