Originally found at Quartz
“Plus ça change,” French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr penned in 1849, “plus c’est la même chose.” Even if you’re no francophone, you probably recognize the translation: The more things change, the more they stay the same. And while Karr probably wasn’t talking about the office, research suggests that more people managing teams could take a lesson from Karr.
For leaders and managers who need to communicate change, a recent report from the Academy of Management offers a new idea for rallying a team around a new plan. The best way to talk about change is to focus on what’s not changing.
What research says about how we accept change
The findings are based on two studies first published by management researchers in 2019. In the first, researchers surveyed pairs of about 200 employees and their managers at companies that had recently announced a change—like an expansion, a merger, or a new leader. Workers ranked how certain or uncertain they felt about the change, along with what their manager had communicated would remain the same, and managers ranked their report’s support for the change.
Continue reading the original article at Quartz
Read the original research in Academy of Management Journal.
Read the Academy of Management Insights summary.
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