Change reaction spotter: which stage are they at?
Think of one person, or one team, going through a change. What you have actually seen and heard points to the stage they are most likely at, and to the help they need from you.
Tick the behaviours you have actually seen or heard in the last couple of weeks; get the most likely stage, what they need from you and six actions. Nothing is stored.
The four stages at a glance
People tend to move through four stages in a transition, at different speeds and sometimes slipping back. Each calls for something different from the leader.
| Stage | What you will see | What they need |
|---|---|---|
| Denial | The announcement has landed, but the work carries on exactly as before. People talk about the change as something for other teams, or for later. Few questions get asked, briefings are politely attended, and tasks linked to the change slide without comment. Some people throw themselves into the old way of doing things. | Information |
| Resistance | The feelings arrive: anger, anxiety, sadness or cynicism. Complaints are as much about how the decision was made as about the decision. Mistakes, short tempers and time off can rise, and output wobbles. Some people argue; others go quiet and do the minimum. “We tried this before” is heard a lot. | A hearing |
| Exploration | Energy comes back, often in bursts. Questions turn to the detail of how the new way will work. Ideas arrive, some half-formed; people volunteer for pilots and compare notes. There is also confusion: too many things started at once, false starts, and frustration when an idea does not work first time. | Focus |
| Commitment | People describe the new way as “how we do things”. They set their own goals within it, solve problems without escalating them and help colleagues who are finding it harder. Roles feel settled again, and attention turns to the next improvement. | Room |
Using what it tells you
Treat the result as a hypothesis to check, not a diagnosis. The quickest check is to ask how the person is finding the change and listen to the answer. If you are spotting a whole team, expect a spread: people closest to the change and people with the most to lose are often at an earlier stage. And spot yourself as well. Leaders are often further along than their teams because they have known for longer, which makes it easy to mistake someone else’s first reaction for stubbornness.
For the full method, including the dip every change brings and six principles for leading it, read Leading people through change: what you will see, and what to do, at each stage.
Written by great{with}talent from our consultants’ practice. The four stages are Cynthia Scott and Dennis Jaffe’s transition model (Training and Development Journal, April 1988), in the Kübler-Ross change-curve lineage; the behaviours and actions are written for this tool. To track how a whole workforce is responding to change over time, see WinningFormula.
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