LEXINGTON, KY - One of life's great ironies is the certainty of change. Yet, adjusting to change is one of great challenges. That is especially true in the workplace, according to a change expert who was a recent guest speaker at the University of Kentucky.
If employees "don't see themselves in the change they'll resist and say 'nobody listens to us,'" said Kevin Knudson, Workplace and Communication Strategist at the interior design and architectural firm Perkins + Will in Minneapolis.
And when employees are resistant to moving to different offices or buildings or merging with employees from another division or company, then such a change becomes both difficult and costly. Work production and cooperation decrease. Negative feelings and employee turnover increase.
Knudson knows a thing or two about change-cultural or physical location-in the workplace. An interior design graduate of the University of Minnesota, he's spent the last 20 years helping major companies do change better.
His past clients include Microsoft, Best Buy, Union Pacific Railroad, Land o Lakes, and other Fortune 500 companies. He's nationally recognized for facilitating and implementing the communication necessary for workplace change to happen as easily as possible.
That recognition and experience prompted the University of Kentucky's College of Design to invite Knudson to speak recently to its interior design and architecture students. Derrick Meads, communications director for the college, said that its lecture series aims to present speakers like Knudson who can bring real work world experience to the students.
As part of the Planning + Strategies team at Perkins + Will, Knudson works with CEOs, managers, and employees to prepare themselves to manage their parts in the change before, during, and as it happens. He and other members of this team are among Perkins + Will's 1,600 employees. The firm has offices in 20 cities.
Knudson specializes in working with corporations and institutions where change involves thousands of employees, often in multiple locations, even in other states. But what he teaches their CEOs and staffs to do can be emulated by a small business owner with fewer than 10 employees.
The biggest mistake that bosses make, Knudson said, is that "they don't communicate." The type of communication that is necessary for success change, he suggested, starts with the recognition that "change is about something different."
Because change requires letting go of whatever place or organizational format or job duties the employees are used to and comfortable with, "fear is a natural part of change."
Company leaders need to communicate details of impending changes as early as possible and to involve employees in the planning. (A successful local example of that process occurred in the design of the new University of Kentucky Hospital.
The hospital's new ER room, which will be the size of a football field, will be the first part of the hospital to be open for patients. Architects constructed a full size mockup of the ER in UK's Nutter Field House. Nurses and other employees went to Nutter, practiced different work scenarios, and suggested improvements.)
Knudson told his audience of UK design students and faculty plus some local professionals in the field that change happens successfully as the result of a careful period of transition. Besides paying attention to employees' fears and ideas, a transition stage involves keeping them informed as the process unfolds and resolving their negative perceptions.
As an example of a successful transition to change he discussed the experience of working with a past client, Allina Hospital and Clinics. Moving 1,500 employees from 13 separate locations to the same new facility was a monumental task.
Each division of employees had its own work culture. Most of the employees were women and they really didn't want to be working in an inner city, higher crime neighborhood where the new building would be located. Commuting time would be longer for most employees and they felt that the work atmosphere would become impersonal and bureaucratic.
Knudson and his team worked for months to help the Allina's managers get the employees on board with the move. To combat their worries about the neighborhood they took bus tours during their paid work hours.
Each employee received email updates about the progress of the move and a folder to keep printouts in. Kiosks with interactive website were set up in each location. Before her division's actual move, each employee received a map of her work area, including restrooms, drinking fountains, and copiers.
Because the new headquarters would be in a renovated Sears distribution center, the theme of weaving fabric, of weaving together the separate healthcare divisions was chosen. It was used repeatedly in videos and print materials.
This type of transition required months of expensive work and planning, but the change that followed was real. Allina's CEO Dick Pettingill wrote that "the reaction of the employees, many of whom had been skeptical of the move, was overwhelming."
The benefits of a good transition are "building trust, creating positive attitudes among employees, maximizing productivity, and improving employee satisfaction," Knudson reminded his audience.