Managing Staff Morale during Organisational Change

Managing change is always a tricky challenge for a leader, whether you are considering a small change to specific processes within the organisation, or an organisation-wide change involving restructuring. It is common for staff and managers to feel insecure and intimidated by any change, no matter how clearly this is articulated by the leadership. If change processes get protracted, this leads loss of staff morale.

Communicating a vision for change is much more than articulating the rationale for it. Logical explanations and fancy PowerPoint presentations do not reassure people’s feelings of insecurity, nor uplift their poor morale. Many organisations, during such periods of change, design incentives and rewards – like tangible rewards for certain achievements, family events for staff, special ‘thank you’ cards – for staff. Good leaders know that even these tangible incentives do not change matters when morale is low, and uncertainty is on the horizon.

Morale is to do with what is called state, i.e., how people feel internally. Think of it like this: some mornings we get up from bed and feel very low - if you ask yourself the reason, there probably isn’t any rational one behind it. The same goes with collective feelings - although consciously people may be 'going along' with the organisation's flow, there may be something that puts people in a 'low state', feeling low in confidence, low energy and low in enthusiasm. To deal with this, you need leaders to understand and acknowledge that low morale is to do with 'state' -- not material benefits -- and this can be addressed by only two things:

(a) showing (not just telling them) people a future state, with illustration and examples and vivid stories of how good or great things will be once the changes happen, stories they can connect to; and

(b) making people visualise what great contribution /role each of the staff will make to move the organisation forward.

Does this mean that each staff need to be reassured that their jobs will not change (or disappear), or that it will be business as usual? Absolutely not. What people value in a change process is that they are not disempowered, personally and professionally. Successful change processes, even when they require painful readjustment, put emphasis on personal growth and learning for staff which strengthens their self-confidence and self-esteem.

In brief, low or high morale is to do with how people feel their life /work is of value to others. Good leaders know how to positively contribute towards making people feel valued and empowered.