Following last week’s blog post, we now know who and what our new government is. Under the combined banner of blue and yellow, government departments are being renamed and rebranded. Meanwhile the media (and who hasn’t been glued to the news for the past week?) is already looking for cracks in the coalition, rumblings of discontent and predictions about how long things will last.
I’m reminded of the change cycle, the model used to describe the phases we go through as we adjust to a new status quo. This applies as much to organisational change as to a house move, divorce or death - so my bias will be immediately clear.
(Obviously, for many in Britain, the change in government is a welcome one, so the cycle of adjustment will have a different tone. But bear with me.)
The change cycle goes like this:
Stage 1 – Loss to Safety: you admit to yourself that there will be a sense of loss of what ‘was’ - regardless of whether or not you perceive the change to be good or bad.
Stage 2 – Doubt to Reality: you doubt the facts and struggle to find information about the change that you believe is valid. Resentment, skepticism and blame cloud your thinking.
Stage 3 – Discomfort to Motivation. The change and all it means has now become clear and starts to settle in. Frustration and lethargy rule until possibility takes over.
The Danger Zone: this represents the pivotal place where you make the choice either to move on and discover the possibilities that change has presented or to choose fear and return to Stage 1.
Stage 4 – Discovery to Perspective: this represents the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. You realise you have choices and you want to make decisions, which give a new sense of control and hope.
Stage 5 – Understanding the change: you are more confident, think pragmatically, and your behavior is much more productive. Good thing.
Stage 6 – Integration: you regain your ability to be flexible and have insight into the ramifications, consequences and rewards of the change -- past, present, and future.
While the new government is still basking in the euphoria of triumph, the losers will definitely be going through the stages set out – in fact they probably started down that road long before the results were announced.
It’s great to win, but I think it’s quite good to lose, sometimes, too. All the clichés – learning from mistakes, a chance to regroup and so on - apply in this case. New leadership, a new vision – al these will have to come into play.
But for now: cautious optimism? I think so. No matter what the journalists say.
14 May 2010
Coalition bruise
Following last week’s blog post, we now know who and what our new government is. Under the combined banner of blue and yellow, government departments are being renamed and rebranded. Meanwhile the media (and who hasn’t been glued to the news for the past week?) is already looking for cracks in the coalition, rumblings of discontent and predictions about how long things will last.
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