Constant change and disruption can seriously affect employee motivation, leading to fatigue, mistrust and burnout during digital transformation.
As companies adapt to the changing priorities of new habits, change fatigue is becoming a real threat to the mental well-being of employees.
Change fatigue is the feeling of apathy that employees feel towards the changes implemented by the organization. This often occurs when digital transformation efforts are poorly prepared or poorly executed, leaving employees feeling unsupported or unsuccessful. This can lead to burnout, mistrust of leadership, and lack of motivation (see The leader-coach).
In this year of unprecedented personal and professional changes due to the pandemic, change fatigue has been inevitable. Without the opportunity to anticipate and prepare for the challenges facing businesses, many organizations have been forced to catch up with their own transformations.
So how do you simultaneously combat change fatigue as it happens, prioritize business agility, and try to make this moment of transformation a little easier? Here are three strategies:
Talk openly about the change.
Change fatigue can contribute to mistrust when leaders behave as if dramatic change isn't taking place, leaving their employees silently wondering what's going to happen next.
People need to feel that their daily struggles are taken into account and appreciated, and when change is not openly communicated, they can begin to doubt themselves and their ability to adapt.
Having awkward conversations about changes, mistakes, and shifting priorities isn't easy, but it's too important to avoid.
In this time of transformation, employees should feel free to express their concerns or curiosities about what they should focus on. By starting these conversations at the company level, individual employees are likely to feel more comfortable raising their questions or comments.
Align the organization with the right priorities by setting goals
Change fatigue can also occur when leaders fail to communicate the purpose of the transformation and the necessary contribution of individual employees. When team members don't understand what's required of them, they may fall short of expectations, and then become frustrated or resentful of management for not being more consistent.
Setting transparent goals for the entire organization, from the executive to the individual level, will help convey the purpose of the goals you ask of the team. In turn, everyone feels confident that they are focusing on the right priorities.
It is convenient to start with the result: What is expected to be achieved? If this change is successful, what will that look like for the company in the end? Clarifying the intent of the transformation and building designated goals around the desired outcome is a big step toward business agility and alignment across the enterprise.
The use of Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is appropriate to align the workforce and combat change fatigue. By bringing OKRs into our own agile execution platform, we can see the goals of the entire organization from any level and create company-wide transparency around the goals and their purpose. This reduces confusion and increases focus and alignment around goals.
Constant consultation with the team
It is perhaps the most important thing you can do to combat change fatigue: open the lines of communication and exchange ideas with the team. Change fatigue affects mental well-being and should be treated accordingly.
Instead of asking how team members are coping with changes that affect them at work, ask them directly. It is necessary to provide tools that help to overcome these changes in a conscious way to avoid exhaustion and resentment.
Here are some ways to consider the mental health of employees when facing business transformation:
- Provide mental health resources, such as counselors or workshops, and encourage the organization to participate in them.
- Check in frequently with team members and use surveys or one-on-one meetings to discuss how they feel.
- Offer options for anonymous feedback for employees who may not feel comfortable expressing themselves openly.
- Allow people to speak freely and nonjudgmentally about the challenges they face in their personal lives that can distract them from work.
the comunication is the key
Change fatigue may be unavoidable in times of extreme business transformation, but there are ways to counteract it. Being more transparent, open, and communicative with employees helps tackle change fatigue mindfully and in a way that enables business agility.
