The Doppler Quarterly Special Edition 2019 | Page 30

Figure 1: How Employees React to Change
Let’s walk through the typical transition phases from the employee’s perspective.
Phase 1: Initial Excitement
In the early phase, people form an initial excitement and have an open mind for what
benefits a cloud adoption program will have for the company. In this context the status
quo seems intact. Teams involved directly or indirectly generally know what is expected
of them and how to react. The new initiative looks like a typical project. All the partici-
pants easily navigate the program’s milestones using existing process guardrails.
Phase 2: Realization of Effort
Once they learn more details, they start to ask questions as to how the initiative will
impact their roles and those of their team’s. As they become more informed, they
become more inquisitive. They start to realize the program’s potential consequences on
their day to day duties. People become aware of the magnitude of the depth and breadth
of potential change. Their behavior shifts from cooperation to resistance. They seek ref-
uge in multiple forms of denial such as rejection and diversion. They start to make com-
ments such as “This too shall pass” and “We’re special, the cloud will not work for us
given our unique business requirements.”
The Realization phase is the most critical time in the cloud adoption lifecycle. If questions
remain unanswered, employees will start to build their own, almost always, ill-informed
narratives. These false narratives, and any associated emotions of fear or panic, start to
dominate the employees’ motivation. They may start to handicap themselves or their
teams with unrealistic goals and poorly thought-through execution plans. They may seek
28 | THE DOPPLER | SPECIAL EDITION 2019