Flying Unfriendly Skies: 6 Ways to Manage Change
At a leadership training I was attending recently, the topic of change came up, and how change has changed. It used to be that an organization went through a distinct re-organization because of a merger or market shift and there was a beginning, middle and end to it, and we all hung on because we knew the turbulence was temporary and that it would end.
I hate turbulence. For someone who flies regularly, I really am a baby when I’m in a shaking plane. I practice my belly breaths, I tell myself over and over that flying is the safest form of travel. I visualize we are softly bouncing from fluffy cloud to fluffy cloud – and not about to plummet 30,000 feet.
It works most of the time, but I have to work at it.
Recently I was on a flight to Phoenix. We took off in a rainstorm, so I knew what we were in for. And we bounced around for about an hour and a half.
I have to hand it to the captain—he was constantly talking to us, telling us where we were on our schedule, and how the bumpiness would let up somewhere around western New York. He even came on to tell us that we were over Albany and almost out of the woods.
I started to notice my own anxiety ebb as he checked in with us. “This is temporary,” I told myself. “We’re almost there.” And I had a bit of an “a-ha” in that moment:
If I know that turbulence will end, and fairly soon, I can manage it. If I don’t, I stay in “fight or flight” mode pretty much the entire time.
At a leadership training I was attending recently, the topic of change came up, and how change has changed. It used to be that an organization went through a distinct re-organization because of a merger or market shift and there was a beginning, middle and end to it, and we all hung on because we knew the turbulence was temporary and that it would end.
Now your company can experience multiple changes at once: you can finish a re-org and then enter immediately into another one; the board can acquire another business before you are finished integrating the last business; one-third of your company can resign, leaving you to hire and train new staff; in the meantime, the market is going soft and you have to re-calibrate your product strategy.
The turbulence does not end.
If you’re lucky, you’ve got a captain who is on the loudspeaker telling you exactly where you are in the journey. Maybe they are telling you when things will get better, and if they don’t know, they are trying some new altitudes to take the pressure off the plane—which they are also telling you about.
Do you sense a theme here? One of the first things to break down during change is communication, and if the communication in your company was never award-winning, you probably need to over-communicate. Here are some ideas on how to do that:
For the captain:
- CEO – Communicate early and often. If it crosses your mind to share where we are in the journey, press the “talk” button on your P.A. Even if you don’t have good news, at least we’ll all know.
- Your passionate purpose should be “to reassure” most of the time – keep that in mind and you’ll have a calm, soothing tone of voice that we will hold onto as we are being rattled.
- Thank us for flying. The captain always comes out of the cockpit to say “thank you” as we leave the plane. He’s the one who flew us through the turbulence, but we got through it and he thanks us for doing so. Thank your team members for their work during this trying time.
For the passengers:
- Deep belly breaths. The only thing that arrests the “fight or flight” response is more oxygen.
- Turbulence won’t cause your business to crash. Going to a doomsday scenario does not help you or your seatmate whose hand you are crushing. Pilots are trained to deal with turbulence. Practice saying “this too shall pass” and keep the faith in your leadership.
- Get some context. My husband turns to the air traffic control channel on the handset when things get rough. He hears others calmly landing planes and it calms him. Find out what’s happening in your industry—is everyone experiencing rough skies or is it just you? Might be time to switch carriers if that’s the case.
Whatever you do, don’t bank on a smooth flight. In today’s crowded skies, you very well might hit some turbulence. Have a strategy for managing that uncertainty—and keep your seat belt fastened—so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.
