Washington State EAP: Welcome everyone to the leading the human side of change webinar. I'm Kari Uhlman, EAP Counselor for the state of Washington. Today we're going to talk about leading the human side of change. And within that we'll talk about how you can understand your own response to change and how that can impact your ability to lead others through the change process. We'll talk about the possible impact of change on your employees. You’ll learn leadership strategies that can support your team as well as you through the human side of change. You'll have an opportunity to begin to develop a plan to support your team around change. And I'll also be talking about resources and supports that are available for both you as a leader and as an individual. And I'll also talk about supports available for your staff or employees. Washington State EAP: If you haven't had a chance to do so yet I would highly recommend that you download the handout for this webinar called leading the human side of change plan. This handout can be found on the EAP website by going to eap.wa.gov and then click on COVID 19 resources. There's a little button there that says COVID 19 resources. And then when you scroll down to the section on leading the human side of change, you'll see a copy of this PowerPoint presentation if you'd like, but also a link that will lead you to the leading the human side of change plan handout, what I'll be doing is, I'll be referring back to this handout and I'll be encouraging you to add to the handout throughout our time together today. So it would be really beneficial for you to have that. Also, you might want to use the handout to write down any notes that you might want to take any things that you want to come back and reflect on in the future. We just have a short time together today and have a lot of information. I'm going to be providing so you can either pause the presentation and do your reflection and do some writing or you could just jot down thoughts and ideas to come back to later. So consider downloading that handout before you get started. Washington State EAP: If you're joining this presentation today and you're feeling really overwhelmed or as I'm moving through the presentation, you start to feel overwhelmed. Just know that you can reach out to the EAP for additional support. Also, if you have questions that don't get answered during this presentation or you're feeling like it's not meeting your needs with what's happening in your world, you can also feel free to reach out to the EAP. Our phone number is 877-313-4455 and it's as simple as that, to connect with us to just call the 877-313-4455 Washington State EAP: And Washington State EAP we serve agencies throughout the state of Washington, but we also serve public service organizations throughout Washington such as higher education, school districts, fire districts, counties, tribal governments and many others. So if you're not sure whether we are your EAP or not feel free to connect with your human resources department and they can let you know who your EAP is. Whether it's us or someone else and can help direct you. So feel free to do that throughout this presentation today. I'll be referring to connecting to us at EAP and just know that many of you are in the EAP network, but if you're not that you can always contact your human resources department to find out who your EAP is. Washington State EAP: All right, well, let's get started by talking about the human side of change. I'd like to start with this quote here. But before I do that, I just want to note that with COVID 19 with a pandemic, before the pandemic as a leader you might have felt overwhelmed by change before COVID happened and it probably felt like there was a lot of change, way back then. Well, I think we've all experienced that with COVID there's been an acceleration of change in the workplace. We're really experiencing a rapid transformation of the workplace right now. And with that, you know, there's changing for many changing goals and roles, perhaps even missions. Work processes have changed the ways we get things work done the way we get things done. How we get things done has really been altered and changed very rapidly. So both your staff and you as a leader have had to really rapidly change behaviors and skill sets in order to adapt to this rapidly changing environment, which has been a lot. Washington State EAP: Well, this quote. Here's a long quote and I, but I thought it would be a great one to start off with. And I want to break it down a little bit further. And so let's go through it together. The types of behaviors needed to support change processes and then he lists them these behaviors that are needed right now our taking risks, assuming new responsibilities, letting go of old ones seeking feedback, asking for help, helping others, sharing information, suggesting improvements, experimenting, talking about errors and failures. So these behaviors that are needed right now, they will be in greater supply in a climate marked by mutual respect, trust and psychological safety. So as a leader you have an opportunity right now to create a climate that helps support the behaviors that are needed at this time. Now some may be wondering what is psychological safety exactly. Well, the way I define it is it's really creating a team environment where there's a shared belief and an experience that the team members, the team, they're safe. Safe for inner personal risk taking. A person on the team feels safe, accepted and respected. So one way to help build psychological safety on a team is for a leader to attend to the human side of change, which is what we're going to talk about today. Washington State EAP: When I think about change right now and navigating change. I really think about how change in this moment of time one's ability to navigate it and adapt. It's really an essential skill in the workplace. I really see that if you think of a job description and what are the essential skills that really for all employees right now being able to navigate change and adapt to change is really an essential skill. So what that means for you as a leader is, of course, it's an essential skill for you as well in your role to be able to be flexible and adaptable, be able to pivot, but also to be able to support your employees through the human side of change. I think it is also part of your essential skills to be able to support others through the human side of change. So we're not able to stop the change that we're currently experiencing or the changes that are coming up on the horizon. But because these are skills, these essential skills as I'm calling them skills, can be learned. And so we can learn more about how to navigate change and we can learn more about how to lead others through change. So let's talk more about that. Washington State EAP: First what I'd like to do is talk about what happens when we don't pay attention to change as a leader - when change is unintended or poorly attended and how that can impact individuals and teams at work. So poorly managed change or unintended change can really impact individuals and teams in many ways. I'm going to list some thoughts here but also consider for yourself if there's other things you would add to this list. You know, the research really shows that when people are moving through change there can be an increase in absenteeism, a decrease in productivity, strained employee relations, increased stress and retention issues. So there's a lot of ways that individuals can be impacted. And it can also impact organizations as well. So one other thing that I want to add here is that when change happens when it's poorly managed, these are things that can happen. The absenteeism productivity and so on. These things can happen. Now they're going to happen most likely with any change but when we tend to the human side of change then these things will impact our teams to a lesser degree. As you can see change poorly attended to change can impact individuals from a human perspective, but also can impact your organization, your agency, your school, your college from a business perspective. When we don't manage the, the human side of change that can really be big impacts on individuals and organizations. Washington State EAP: I added this quote here by Franklin D. Roosevelt, because I think it's a great reminder. It's a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you're trying to lead and find no one is there. I think probably all of us have had this experience as a leader. I put this here because change can really spread us thin can be stressful and overwhelming. There's a lot of things going on. And so sometimes we can become very distracted, for good reasons, and we have a lot on our plates and we can just simply forget to attend to the human side of change. And suddenly we notice, wait. Where's my team. They're not right behind me. And so we need to do some things then to adjust and change our strategies and things that we're doing in order to come back together with our team and have everybody working together. I think this quote is just a good reminder about that. And so we're going to talk about strategies that you can use as a leader when you find yourself looking over your shoulder and realizing, oops, you know, I'm kind of going in a different direction here. Washington State EAP: So let's talk first about some definitions to help us move towards the strategies. We're going to lay some groundwork, and then we'll talk about specific strategies. The first definitions that I want to make sure we're clear on are the difference between external versus internal change. External change that is the change that is happening on the outside so external, of course, from us. And so that could be anything, such as physically distancing during the pandemic, working from home when you used to work on the job site, learning to implement new technology or software, change in job duties, wearing a mask. These are things that we could say are the external changes. The internal change though is different. The internal change is what's going on in the inside in response to the change. It’s the psychological process that occurs in response to the external change. I want to give an example to help illustrates external versus internal little bit more. We can all relate to the pandemic. We are all experiencing that. And so I want to use that as an example. So the pandemic, that need to shelter in place that Is an external change. If you think about when we were first asked to shelter in place, this is the external change, and then consider what was going on internally for you when that happened. You might have had feelings of shock or denial or worry, anxiety, sadness. A lot of different feelings could come up in response to being asked to shelter in place in the beginning of the pandemic and all the unknown with that. Now I’d like to ask you to consider how you're feeling today about the pandemic, you know, sitting here today with me. What current feelings do you have around the pandemic at this point? When you think about it, some of the words might be the same. You may still have some worry some, anger, irritability, denial, whatever it might be, sadness, but even if the words are the same as the beginning of the pandemic your feelings probably have a different flavor. Right now they're coming from a different place because as you sit here with me today you are psychologically in a different place than you were when the pandemic first happened. The process that you went through from the beginning of the pandemic, psychologically, you know how things changed for you internally until where you sit with me today that is the process that I'm talking about. That internal change. That psychological process that a person goes through in relation to change. Washington State EAP: The other thing that I want to note here about that internal psychological process that we go through in relation to external change is something that can be very confusing for people. We oftentimes, people have in relation to a change is happening, these feelings that are confusing to them are often their feelings around grief and loss. And so I'd like to note that here and we're going to talk more about that and dive into that a little bit more because I do think that this can be really confusing these feelings of grief and loss are there as we internalize and come to terms with the change. And so it is typically part of the process of moving through change, the psychological process of moving through change. So we'll talk more about that as we continue on. Washington State EAP: Here what I think the most helpful in this moment is I'd like to invite you to consider one external change to focus on for our time together here today so that as I'm talking about concepts, ideas, asking questions, referring you to the handout that I suggested earlier that you download the human side of change plan. As I'm doing that, that you can think of one external change and have that on your mind as we move forward and then hopefully you can create a plan with that handout I'm providing to help you with that one change. And then of course you can apply the same concepts to other changes that come up. So, what I invite you to do is to consider, what is a change that you're leading your team through right now? Or it might be a change that's coming up on the horizon that's on your mind. So you could pick something like maybe there's a new software program that's being implemented or perhaps there's a change in procedures or work processes. Perhaps it's that your staff are working from home, rather than working on campus or in the agency or wherever you work. I don't know if anyone has budget cuts, they need to consider that could be another external change. Or I know that many through the state have been going through the furloughs and so I don't know if that would be a change. Those are just some examples of possible changes that you as a leader could consider but there's a lot of other possibilities. So consider for yourself what change you want to focus on for our time together today. And then once you do that, if you would consider adding that to the human side of change plan and there's a place at the very top where you can input the identified change. So consider adding that there and then I'll be referring back to this. I'll be referring back to this. Plan throughout the time today. So feel free to keep going back to it and making notes and putting information on there as as works for you. Washington State EAP: Alright so what I'd like to do next is talk about why change is difficult. And you may have your own sense of that right now. As you're sitting here and all the changes that so many of us are experiencing right now, but I want to read this start off with reading this quote by Marilyn Ferguson. It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways. But it's that place in between that we fear. It's like being between the trapezes it's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to. I think this quote really describes well that you know for many people, what it's like to go through change. You know, as humans, we tend to like predictability. We like to feel that we have control of our lives or parts of our lives. And when we experience change, most often, we experienced a loss of control or experience instability and these are things that we are often hoping to have and to have a sense of and with change. We often lose that sense of control and stability. Washington State EAP: William Bridges, he's most well-known for his work around the human side of change. He talks about this psychological process that we go through as humans. And so I'll be referring to him quite a bit throughout this presentation, William Bridges lived from 1933 to 2013, and he uses the trapeze in his work. He has a book called managing transitions. I highly recommend that book and a lot of the information from this presentation is from his book and he uses the trapeze and so I'd like to use that as well. So he talks about as you look at the visual of the trapeze or imagine it in your mind's eye, there's a trapeze on one side and that is the current state and then the trapeze on the other side is the future state. There's this whole place in between, of getting with change from the current state to the future state. And in order to get to the future states, there's this process of letting go of the old in reaching out towards the new. And through this process, there can be a lot of feelings related to this a lot of uncertainty, will I make it, what it's going to what is it going to be like on the other side, I don't know what it's going to look like, will I have the support that I need. And so all of this can bring up a lot of feelings. A lot of fear a lot of uncertainty. And so this is part of what makes change so difficult. Washington State EAP: But let's talk more about the psychological process that people go through in order to have a better understanding of this. So William Bridges, he calls this internal psychological process that we move through when we experience change as managing transitions. And so here's the transition model. It's a three phase process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with change as William bridges has talked about it. And so I'm going to go through this model to help you understand his work a little bit more and how it might apply to your situation. Washington State EAP: So the first phase is called endings and in this phase. It's really a process of letting go of how things were done before. And when we let go of how things were done before. There's the possibility of having to let go of our identity that's associated with how things were done previously. And that's what part of what can make the endings so difficult. So this first phase of the transitions this ending phase is where people need a lot of support around losses they might be experiencing. People can have feelings here, such as, you know, denial. This isn't going to happen. This change is not going to happen. It's not going to impact me. They can have feelings of worry or anxiety about what the future will hold. They could be shocked around the change. I can't believe this is happening. They might just feel like they’re experiencing a lot of chaos. Like what's happening, feelings around that. Like the rug is pulled out from underneath them. Those types of feelings related to that. So the ending phase can be really difficult. It can bring up a lot of different feelings. For you as a leader, what you can do to help support your employees through the endings phase is to provide empathy. To validate your staff’s feelings and their experiences. And as best as you can hold a vision of what the future might look like. How this might all work out or what the process might be like, providing some type of vision can be helpful and grounding for staff. Washington State EAP: The second phase is called the neutral zone, the neutral zone is really that in between time. That time, you know, the trapeze is in between where the old ways and processes they're not completely gone, but the new ways and processes are not fully in place yet so people in this phase of the neutral zone can feel really confused and uncertain. Can feel like there's a lot of instability. And of course other feelings can come up as well. Often in this place, what can be most helpful as a leader is to provide people with information about what's happening. What you do know to communicate and can continue to communicate. And to create plans and structures and that might be temporary plans and structures that you put in place until the final plans and structures are in place, or it might be putting in parts of the plans or structures or something like that. But those things can be really helpful and grounding for employees during the neutral zone. Washington State EAP: The third phase is called. I call it the new beginnings. And so when people have reached this phase, they often are in a place of understanding the change a bit more. They have a sense of clarity, maybe they have some optimism or hope. They might have a sense of their purpose in the change or the purpose of the change. Just more clarity about what's happening around the change more of the confusion is gone and things have just become clearer. As a leader in your role, what can be really helpful when employees are in this place is to help clarify roles and responsibilities, because most often during a change somebody's roles or responsibilities have been altered or changed and so that needs to be really clearly communicated who's doing what now. You can help employees by helping them understand how they can participate in the process in this new place that you're in. It can be really helpful to acknowledge and recognize the hard work that people have been doing through this change, there might be key individuals who have been impacted more with this change or provided more work with the change and so you want to make sure to recognize those people, to acknowledge wins that you've had as a team through this process, to acknowledge milestones and to just note where you are in relation to the change. You know how far you've come Washington State EAP: I just want to say that this diagram here and this section is really the cliff notes for this whole presentation. So if you get nothing else from this webinar, our time together today, just know that this could be the most helpful piece right here to just understand where your staff are, where your employees are, in relation to the change what's going on with them. Are they in the ending phase, neutral zone, or new beginnings? And then you can see, you know, outline some different steps, concrete steps, that you can take when employees are in those different phases. Washington State EAP: Now, a couple things I want to note. One is I just kind of want to backtrack a little bit and say, not all change is negative. So there are changes which many people consider positive, they might be something like getting a new job. There might be a piece of software, something like that, that people are really excited about and feel like, Oh, finally we have the software, someone getting married or adding to their family or something like that. There's a lot of changes that are often positive and even with a change that someone considers positive, there's still a psychological process that people go through. And so there might be more other feelings like excitement or curiosity, things like that that might come up for an individual but there's still a psychological process that people go through and sometimes people are surprised when it's a positive change when they start to struggle or realize this is a little harder than I thought it was going to be. So I think it can just be helpful to know that even with positive change there can be a psychological process that you go through and it might not feel as difficult as a change that is harder, but it still might be there and it can be surprising for people. So I think it's helpful to know that. Washington State EAP: Now this model as I have it on the screen here appears to be very linear and the process, the human psychological process is not linear. So I want to just make that clear that even though I said, this could be your cliff notes, life is never that easy. So let's talk more about kind of the nuances of this and more about the human side of change. People don't move through the psychological process from point A, B to C. It's not like that. People flow through this and move back and forth through these phases. It's more fluid than that. People can be in more than one phase at the same time, people can be sad about that there’s a furlough or upset about that at the same time. So that's the ending phase and the same time feel really confused about what the next steps are how they're going to manage through the furloughs. And so a person can be in more than one phase at the same time. Washington State EAP: To add to the complexity each of your employees are individuals. And so they're going to be going through these phases at different times. Sometimes you might have folks, mainly in one area of these phases or another. But often you'll have people kind of scattered around these phases. So it's really important to be aware of that and that you kind of have to utilize multiple strategies or really have a sense of what's going on with your team to know how you need to pivot and adapt to what's going on with them, but we'll talk more about that in a little bit. Washington State EAP: The other thing that I want to say here is I'm going to add to this diagram, this curve. This is a performance curve. And you can see it's a curve that starts up at the top, and then goes down and then comes back up and the down part is in the neutral zone. This is the performance curve. And so I want to let you know it would be expected with a change that there would be a dip in performance as people are trying to adapt and come to terms with the change and understand it. When we attend to the human side of change, though, I would say that that dip in the performance curve doesn't go as low, but even, you know, you do the best work you can as a leader. I think we just need to expect that there will be a dip in performance when there's a change. Particularly when it's a significant change that has a big impact on the team. So I think as a leader it can just be helpful to know that that's part of the process and to just factor that that factor that in. Into your thinking as you move forward. Washington State EAP: So I want to talk about some strategies. But before I do that, what I would like to do is talk about how people can be impacted by change, by the stress of change, what you know comes along with change will do that. And then we'll talk more specifically about strategies that you can use to help your team through the human side of change. Washington State EAP: So there are common responses to change. Of course everybody is different. So everybody's response is going to be slightly different. But I want to just go over some common responses to change that people typically have. When we're under the stress of change our minds can be impacted. We can find ourselves having a hard time focusing or concentrating difficulties, just with our thinking where it can be hard to make decisions. A person if they're having to learn something new might have like a loss of confidence might be something that you know you felt really confident in before and now you're on a learning curve to learn something new around this change. And so that might be something that happens, an individual can feel disoriented, or forgetful. So there's a lot of different ways that our minds can be impacted in relation to change. Washington State EAP: There can also be an impact on behaviors as well, people can find themselves bumping into things tripping more just be more accident prone. They can find themselves making mistakes or engaging in unhealthy behaviors like over or under eating using drugs or alcohol to as a way to try to cope with the stress. A lot of times, there can be relationship issues, particularly on teams, you can have teams where people are gossiping, you can have people on teams who are externalizing they're very vocal or having more externalizing behaviors and then you can have the opposite as well. People that are withdrawing going inward disconnecting. So these are behaviors that we see when people are experiencing stress. Washington State EAP: Also emotions can be impacted. And so think for yourself. What are some of the emotions that you have in relation to the change that you're thinking about today that's on your mind for today? Or things that you're noticing your staff, how they're responding their emotions around that change. There's a lot of different feelings that a person can have. And I've just noted some of them here. So with the change. Typically people might feel worried or anxious, have some sadness, feelings around grief, as I've touched on before there can also be other things like mood swings, and people just feeling tired, feeling vulnerable, feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, powerlessness and just kind of struggling with their emotions around the change. Washington State EAP: Consider for yourself, the body and how with the change that you're thinking about today, you know with any stress that you might have with that. How's that showing up for you in your body? So when we're stressed about change or have changed on our mind, what can happen sometimes for people is sometimes people can have a hard time sleeping. For some it might be body aches, body pains, tense muscles, grinding teeth, muscular twitches, and headaches. Often when we're anxious, we breathe in a shallow manner. So it can be shallow breathing. So there's a lot of ways that we, as humans, and our teams can be impacted by change. Washington State EAP: I want to note here that I've bolded and underlined five words- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance and I've done that because those are words that are associated with grief and loss. Many of you might be familiar with Elizabeth Kubler Ross’ work around death and dying and she has identified these as feelings related to grief and loss. And you can see that those feelings show up around change. So I think it just can be helpful to just know that that that's something that can happen. And we'll dive into the loss piece in a little bit. So we can be impacted in lots of ways, both for ourselves and our teams and it's good to have that awareness. Washington State EAP: What I'd like to do now is help you learn some different strategies or for some it might be just remembering these strategies. What I'd like to do is talk about leadership strategies, team strategies, and I'll talk about supports. Washington State EAP: Before I dive into the first one leadership strategies. I want to provide us a little bit more information around my intent of starting with leadership strategies because there's thought behind that. And I just want to let you know that. As a leader, oftentimes what can happen is we can tend to put our focus on our team, on others, and be working to support them and doing what needs to be done to take care of them. And as a leader, sometimes that means that we forget about or don't take the time to consider coming to ourselves first and noticing what's going on for us. I want to use the analogy that most of you have probably heard about, but on an airplane, you know, airplanes going down and the oxygen levels have changed, you know, oxygen will come down and what they tell you to do first is first put the oxygen mask on yourself and then assist the person next to you a child or someone next to you. It's the same in leadership that it's really important as a leader, to be clear, and have self-awareness of what's going on within you, so that you can help someone else and I would say in in the best way possible. When we focus on someone else first as a leader that is great and what you know can happen when we do that, though, that we need to be careful of is that sometimes we don't realize what happening for us and that can then come out on other people. We can expect that someone else needs the support that we're needing. We can run thin ourselves and then not be able to have anything left to support people over time. We can get burned out. So many different reasons why it's important as a leader to have some awareness of what's going on within us so that we can look at and differentiate between what's going on for us as a leader versus what's going on for our staff. So we're not putting our things, our stuff, on staff and it's very clear on the differences in that they are getting the support that they actually need. Not the support that we're needing. Hopefully that makes sense. So what I'd like to do is start off with talking about the leadership perspective to have you put on the oxygen mask first and really consider what's going on for you and increase your self-awareness so that you can support your staff in the best way possible. Washington State EAP: So starting off with you as a leader, and I think it's helpful to just be reminded that having a response to change is universal. You're going to have a response to change. Your staff is going to have a response to change. That is expected. What is also expected is that your response is going to be different than someone else's response, how you react to a change and the adjustment period for that change is really going to vary based on a lot of different factors. We're each individual's and so factors to consider are that you have a different work history, family History, life experience, cultural perspectives, and individual personality. So all of these factors make up how we react to change and the adjustment period that it takes for us to adjust to the change. So we're each different unique individuals and have had different life experiences, different cultural perspectives and that creates a lens in which we view the world and because of these unique experiences that we each have we’re each impact by change differently. So what I would suggest is to consider for the change that you have on your mind today as you're moving through this presentation. Consider what are the factors that might be influencing your response to change to this particular change? Washington State EAP: I want to give a few examples and just offer those out and maybe that helps you kind of think about something in your life and factors that might be influencing your response to the change that you're thinking about today. So say when you were younger, that you grew up in a military family and you moved around a lot through the country or through the world and you had a lot of different cultural experiences throughout the world, changed schools and friends frequently. So If that was your family history, how you grew up, and then think about the present day. There's some change in front of you currently. Your experience that you went through as a child of being in the military family and all the things that went along with that that might make it easier or more difficult for you to adapt to the change that's in front of you right now because of your previous experiences. Let me give another example. Say you were a leader during the recession back in 2008/2009 and during that time you had to lay people off or you yourself were laid off. And then you come to the present moment sitting with me here today and you have a change in front of you. You need to look at your budget and reallocate resources with that change that's in front of you right now. Your previous experience of laying off staff are being laid off during the recession that might make it easier or more difficult for you to navigate through the change that you're currently experiencing. It could be that it's like, I went through a lot back then and that was really difficult. So I've got some experience about how to do that now. I know how I would do it differently. And so in the present moment this feels easier or it might feel more difficult. That was a really difficult experience that I went through back then. This is bringing up a lot of memories and feelings that I have. It reminds me of that time. And so this change that's in front of me right now. This actually feels really stressful. Other things that could be impacting you are things that are happening in the present day. Say you're homeschooling your children right now while you're working or you're taking care of an elderly parent or are worried about an elderly parent, taking care of a child with disabilities, or recently lost a loved one or a coworker. These experiences that you're having right now might be influencing your reaction to the change that's in front of you today. And again, it could make it easier or more difficult. To adjust to the, the change in the stressors that go with the change that you are thinking about today. So consider for yourself what are the factors that impact your response to change? And then you can certainly add those to the reading the human side of change plan. There's a section for that, if you'd like. You know having this greater sense of self awareness in this particular area. It can be really beneficial in understanding yourself, understanding how you show up in the world, and help you begin to create a plan to support yourself or to reach out for support around managing the change that's in front of you. I think the other benefit of having more self-awareness about what might be influencing your response to change is that then when we have more self-awareness, like this, it can help us when we're looking at our team and remember that those on your team that you're leading, they're on their own life journey and their response to change. We don't know exactly what's going on for them, all the different factors that are in play for them. So it can help us to be less confused when people don't respond to change in the same way that we do. And it can also help us be maybe less judgmental. If someone seems to have a big response to change when you think it's just a small change there might be some other things going on. And you may never know what those things are. But just having an awareness that there's a lot going on underneath the surface for people and that we might not know what that is, can be helpful and help increase our patience as leaders be more curious be more supportive and just kind of approach things from a different perspective. So we'll revisit this strategy and think about your team in a little while. But right now, just kind of consider for yourself what might be impacting your ability to respond to this change. Washington State EAP: The next thing I want to talk about are your strengths. During these challenging times there are so many stressors and there's a lot of negativity right now. I thought it might be helpful to focus on the strengths that you already have and consider how you can draw upon the strengths that you have right now in these challenging times. How can your strengths help you manage the human side of change navigate change and manage change. We always want to grow and look at how we can grow but I'm finding right now people just don't have the energy necessarily to do that right now. So something that doesn't take a lot of energy is to consider what we already have within us, our strengths. You may already have a sense of what your strengths are, as a leader, as a human. And or you might want to take some time to reflect on that. Many of you might have already taken something like the any Enneagram or the Myers Briggs. You could certainly pull those out or maybe there's some other assessment that's helpful for you. You could pull those out and really look at you know your strengths from those perspectives and just remind yourself of those strengths and then consider how you can fall back on those strengths and how that might be helpful for you as a leader right now. And I'd like to offer another way to look at your strengths is to do some type of strengths assessment. There's a book which I have at the end of this presentation and you can download this presentation from our website. There's a book called now discover your strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton. You can purchase that book. And when you do you receive a code and you can go online and complete the Clifton Strengths Finder, and it gives you a report and information to help you identify what are your top strengths. And some of you might have done this already, another avenue that I wanted to let you know about is Marcus Buckingham, who's the co-author of the book, I just noted. He has also started his own website and he has on there, a standout strengths assessment, which you can take for free. And so this his website. I'm going to give you the website in just a moment. So you can go to his website and you can take the assessment. I want to offer a few caveats about the assessment. The assessment takes 20 minutes of uninterrupted time so you'll want to wait until you have 20 minutes to complete that assessment. You'll get a 14 page report that will talk about all of your strengths and they'll put in an order. It'll show you your top two strengths and then show them combined. You can go to his website and you can learn more about your top strengths. He's got videos and things like that to help you have a better understanding of your strengths. What I would suggest is when you're looking at your strengths, don't go just by the title of the strength but look at the assessment and look at the explanation that description of the strength because I think that provides a little bit more information for you and you can simply look and see what pieces fit for you what feels like a strength and then consider how can you utilize the strength as a leader. So the, the website for Marcus Buckingham stand out strengths assessment is very easy to find. You can just put in to the search engine www.marcusbuckingham.com. And then you'll be able to see where his standout strength assessment is and take that. Another thing that you could consider with this website is you could consider for a team building activity, having your staff if you're able to do that, have them each complete an assessment for themselves. And they can learn their top strengths as well. And then you can have during one of your team meetings, you can have people talk about what their strengths are, you can have people talk about how they might utilize their strengths during these challenging times. You might have other people on the team identify how they see this person using their strengths in the workplace, those types of things. So you can think of key questions to ask your staff to consider and then have a staff meeting and talk about strengths and this can be a really positive team building exercise. As a leader it can be really helpful to learn more about your team member’s strengths, your staff strengths and so that you can also help encourage them or know strengths that they have and how you might utilize those strengths and tap into those strengths. So just a team building exercise, you could consider using as well. Washington State EAP: Alright, so let's talk about some other leadership strategies that you could utilize. So, earlier we talked about common responses to change. How our mind, body, emotions and behaviors can be impacted. When we're experiencing stress related to change. I'm going to go back in the slides here. But yes, consider for yourself how you might be being impacted by the change you've identified today. And just notice if there's any additional support that you're needing around this, or just how the stress is showing up for you. You might find when you do this, maybe you're being impacted. Your body's being impacted. This might be just a reminder that maybe I need to reach out to my health care provider or maybe your emotions are really being impacted and it might be maybe it's good for me to reach out to the EAP or maybe there's just having a understanding of what's going on for you. This can be helpful and to be more compassionate with yourself and to just have a better understanding that it's expected we be impacted by change and okay this is how I'm being impacted with this particular change at this time in my life. What, if anything kind of plan do I need to have or supports would be helpful for me as a leader with this particular change I've identified today. Washington State EAP: Another strategy that can be really helpful is to consider the loss piece. We've talked about this a little bit earlier. But I want to dive into the section, a little bit more as I feel like this can be really helpful. So on the change plan, you'll see there's a section on the first page where it's identify what you are losing and then it has these checkboxes here. These two rows of checkboxes. I'm going to be talking about this area of loss right here. And what I would encourage you to do is consider the change that you're thinking about today and I'm going to provide some possible examples of each of these, just to make sure they're clear, and just put a check mark by clicking on the box there ny any of them or all of them that you feel for the change you have in mind today are a loss that you're experiencing. There's of course a couple of areas where you could add in other losses, maybe that I haven't identified or if you prefer to call a loss by a different name. You could do that. Washington State EAP: So I'll give some examples in a moment, but first I want to explain a little bit more why this can be helpful. So with loss, it can feel like a wave a wave just coming over us and we can become overwhelmed by the loss, around a change. When we can pause and step back and look and identify what is the particular loss that we or losses that we are experiencing that can be really helpful. One to just identify and name the losses can be helpful right there or once we've identified the losses, then you can create a plan. But if we don't know what in particular is being challenging it's hard to create a plan. Washington State EAP: So let's talk about each of these, just real briefly, and then again, feel free to check off the boxes of any that apply for you with the change that you're thinking about today. So a person can feel a loss of identity when they're experiencing a change. It could be someone's work identity, personal identity, cultural identity or there might be some other type of identity that you would note for yourself, where you're feeling a loss. One example might be, I think of each work team is having its own personality, kind of its own culture, and right now you could be feeling a loss around your work team and the identity of that work team. Maybe your culture of your team that you're leading has changed. Maybe it's because people are feeling a lot of stress right now so their behaviors or how they're showing up in the world is different than it was before or maybe the loss here is around the team working remotely. And so that's really impacted the culture of your work team. You could be feeling a loss of power right now as a leader. Many of you are working remotely and your staff are working remotely for many or some kind of combination of people working on site and working remotely and so before perhaps you're able to have a better sense of what your employees were working on and be able to talk to them about things and just see them and how they're doing. And now you don't have that. So you might feel a loss of power right now. Relationships have certainly been altered with so many people working at home and with the stress and all of that. You might feel a loss in your relationships. It could be that you're missing your colleagues or you're missing your staff or those that you serve whether that students or community members, whoever that might be, you're not seeing them like you did before so relationships are altered and you're feeling a loss in that area. Maybe in your job right now you as a leader, you've had to change the type of work that you're doing and maybe there's a project you were really excited about and it's on the back burner right now or something has changed with your job and you're not doing the work that you found most meaningful before. Maybe it's temporary maybe it's something that's really shifted in your job and so that might be a loss that you're experiencing. Maybe you're needing to use new technology, which I know so many people are or new software and you might be on the learning curve and when we're on a learning curve often we feel less competent and so that could be an area where we're experiencing a loss. Maybe your role has shifted as a leader and you're feeling a loss of status or you're feeling a loss of control. There's so much that feels out of our control right now so you might be feeling the loss of control, maybe at work and or in your personal life. Routines and the structures have definitely been altered for so many, so this could be another area where you're feeling a loss. You might be feeling a lot of uncertainty right now. And so there might be a place where you might be in a place of feeling unclear about or uncertain about your work future or your personal future. For example, some people might be putting off retiring now, just with everything going on, or they might be moving towards retiring more quickly because of everything that's going on for some reason. So again, I just invite you to put a checkmark next to all of the boxes that might apply for you around the change that you're considering today and then to just step back and to just notice, what are the losses, you're experiencing? To just be aware, more specifically of what's going on for you and I think having this awareness can be really helpful. Washington State EAP: Then after you kind of have a sense of the types of losses, you're experiencing I invite you to notice if there's one or two where you're feeling kind of the impact of that loss, a bit more. You might find that you're feeling loss across the board in many areas for some changes. For some changes it might be more specifically certain pieces feel more impactful to notice that for yourself. So I would pick one or two losses that you might be experiencing right now out of all those losses and then what I'd like you to do is consider, if you would, are there ways you can compensate for the loss that you're experiencing? You know, there's some losses there's no compensating for those losses, clearly. Oftentimes, though there is maybe a way to compensate, or maybe to make the loss more bearable, you know, small things that you can do to make it a little bit better. Consider if there might be anything with the losses, you're experiencing around this particular change that might be helpful. Say for instance you're missing your colleagues at work and the support of your colleagues. You're missing those relationships and that's an area of loss. So where you could compensate is you could consider once you've identified that as a loss, then you could consider what can I do with that now that I have that information? It might be that you decide I'm going to reach out to one or two of my colleagues or I'm going to have an informal get together online and invite my colleagues or I'm going to start this meeting with my colleagues, I'm going to invite people to come, just a few minutes early so we can just connect or have a virtual coffee time with them or something like that. Consider if there's any ways you can compensate for the losses that you're experiencing. Washington State EAP: The next thing I want to talk about is something called the marathon effect. The marathon effect is something that we as leaders can get trapped in. It's when we come to a place where we forget that our staff, our employees, that they've received information after us. So let me explain that a little bit more to make that make more sense be clear. If you imagine a race like the New York Marathon. There might be 20,000 people running in that marathon. It's huge. With that many people running in the marathon not everybody can start at the starting line. So typically what happens is the professional athletes they're in the front, you know, they've run the fastest. They've done a certain number of races and so on and so they've qualified to be at the front of the race. So the race starts the gun goes off. The people that are in the front, the professional runners. They hear the sound of the gun go off and they begin to run. Now, if you can imagine 20,000 people, it's a long way back from the starting line. The people at the back they don't even know the race has started when the gun goes off, the only way they know the race has started is when the person in front of them starts to move and then it's time to start running. The marathon effect is something that can happen for leaders and impact teams. This happens when as a leader, you've heard about the change and you've heard about it most likely before your team so you have time to get started on the race to think about and process your thoughts and feelings around the change. You've most likely had more time to get used to the change. You've probably had more professional development and experience with organizational change than your staff, most likely. So really, you're at the front of the race. When we're at the front of the race like this, from that vantage point, it's really easy to become impatient with others that are behind you, because you can forget that they don't even know the races started or that the race started later for them. We can even, as leaders, start communicating to others in ways that don't even make sense to them because they lack the depth of knowledge. The time to process the change that we've had. It’s really important as a leader to just notice and recognize if you might have the marathon effect happening. Where you can just having awareness and acknowledge when you're in or stuck in the marathon effect that can be helpful. If you notice you're feeling impatient with your team or individuals on your team, such as asking yourself why they aren’t accepting this change. Why are they moving faster? Why don't they just get on with us, those types of things? That's a signal to you that you're probably in the marathon effect that you're forgetting that they're behind you that they need more time. They might need some more support. You might find that you're talking in a way that doesn't make sense to your employees because you're using language or terms that are new to them or that they're just having to catch up on the fact even that change is happening. Just as you need time to grasp and metabolize the change that's in front of you, your team needs that as well. So consider if you are in the midst of the marathon effect. Do you need to shift your thinking or maybe your expectations? It's an opportunity to remind yourself you might need to slow down or you might need to provide more information or provide the information again in a different way. One way to mitigate the potential risk of getting in the marathon effect is to assemble a small group of people have employees that will be impacted by the change. Preferably with different roles or different levels of the organization, whatever is appropriate in your situation and to ask that group of people to provide you with input on key communication? Perhaps there's an email that you're going to be sending out or key strategies that you're working on that they can provide you with more information such as actually this doesn't make sense. What's this acronym? I'm not sure what this term is. You have a strategy that talks about this but staff are really worried about this. So maybe you need to break down the communication into smaller bite sized pieces. Having more people involved with different roles or different levels of the organization can really help you in ensuring that you're not moving quicker than your team is ready to go. Line managers or staff, they can really help you translate language that makes sense and help you operationalize strategic changes or steps that you might what might make with this change. For a large change initiative or one that is going to be significantly impactful you might consider having a group of people whose job is to focus on the human side of change. I have the navigating change webinar that's up on the EAP website so they could learn more about the human side of change or listen to this on demand webinar and learn more about it understand that a little bit better. And then they can provide you with input around how staff are being impacted by the change, suggestions that they might have about how to help support staff, resources that staff might be needing those types of things. So that's something to consider for a larger change initiative as well. Alright, so consider for yourself with the change that's in front of you that you're thinking about today, are you in the marathon effect? If not something just to be aware of as you move forward with this change or other changes to just notice if you find yourself in the marathon effect. If you do, it's just a place to notice and then be able to adjust and adapt from there. Washington State EAP: So I've talked about leadership strategies. Now what I'd like to do is talk more about team strategies. So, earlier we talked about, for the change that you've identified today, the losses that you're experiencing. What I'd like to do next is think about it from your team perspective. On the leading the human side of change plan, if you go to the second page in the middle, you'll see these boxes here. In the gray area this is a place where you can add the names of individuals or groups of people that will be impacted by the change. So it could be something like administrative assistants here and then professional something here, and then another group here, whatever works best for you with the change that you're focused on today, whether it's individuals or groups of people that are impacted by the change. Then the next thing to do is to look at the losses. These are the same losses identified earlier that you thought about this for yourself. Now, of course, you won't know exactly what losses people are experiencing, but often as leaders you have a really good sense of how your team might be impacted by the change. As best you can to go through and check off the boxes of the loss or losses that each individual or each group of people might be experiencing. Once you've gone through and identified the losses that people might be experiencing. The next piece to do is to step back and take a look at that and to just notice, what are the losses that people are experienced or you're thinking they might experience with this change on the horizon? By doing this it can help you be able to think about supports that might be beneficial or actions or things you can do to support your staff. It can also help you consider specific areas to maybe check in with your staff around. So if you identify competence as a loss that someone, someone or a group of people might be experiencing, perhaps because they're on the learning curve and they might be feeling less competent right now. If that's an area you think might be a loss they're experiencing either in your one on ones or your team meetings, you could certainly bring up that topic. Maybe not in a straightforward way, as you know, like I did this thing and are you having this loss. But in a way of, you know, with this new software implementation we're all having to learn a lot right now and it's a lot to absorb when people learn new things. It can be kind of hard. There's a whole learning curve that we go on and that's not always easy. I just wanted to check in and see how you're all feeling about that? And then that gives you the opportunity to check and see if you have it. Do you have the loss or one of the losses that they're experiencing? Check in on that then you can validate their feelings and experience around that. And then after you do that then you can talk about what kind of supports might be helpful or actions might be helpful to support the team. Maybe it's making sure they have time scheduled on their calendar to do the training for this new software or maybe it's that in a team meeting you put aside time where you go through a learning module together and there's time to ask questions or whatever strategies might be most helpful. Maybe through the conversation, you learn more that actually they're not so worried about that but what they're worried about is something else. Then that helps you go through that process around that something else validating feelings and experience, you know, talking about it and then looking at how what supports might be helpful for them. So you can use this tool in that way. Another way to consider this is to look at the difference between the different groups of people or individuals that you've listed here. And notice the different types of losses that people might be having to acknowledge for yourself and identify that different individuals or groups of people might be having different experiences. Maybe to notice that. And so if you have some people that are really being impacted more than others maybe you want to focus your energy, a little bit more on how do you support that group of people or those individuals. Maybe it's having conversations or your conversations are more focused towards those individuals, maybe how the other people that are not being impacted by the change so much, maybe what they can do to help support those that are being more impacted can just give you some additional information. Washington State EAP: Also I want to note here that if you have different individuals or groups of people and the same boxes are checked for all of those groups, they all have competence checked, you might just notice if there might be a nuance to that that even though you might have checked off the same boxes. They might have the same loss but they might not be impacted to the same degree. So notice that. If the loss might be the same, but certain individuals or groups of people might be have be more significantly impacted. And so to notice that, and then you can create a plan around that. Another thing to consider is to go back to the loss that you're experiencing with this change which you did on the previous page. Page one of this handout and to compare it to the losses that your staff are going through to notice if the losses look different. If the words are the same, but the impact might be different. I just want to say here that you as a leader, the impact of change is going to be different on you than it is going to be on your team. You’re not going to have the same experience that they're having because you're in a different role. So you might actually have more stress on you or you might have less stress on you or stress on you in different ways. So having that clarity. The difference between what your staff is experiencing and what you're experiencing is important for you to have, that self-awareness, and so that you are actually supporting your team with the stressors they're experiencing rather than the stressors that you're experiencing and that you get help for your own stressors separately. So that can be really helpful around losses to really kind of look at more specifically, who's losing what. The piece I want to add here around losses is a research study that I read, this has been a while ago, but the person who has the most control over the change feels the impact the least, typically. As a leader, most likely you have more control and more influence over the change and so most likely the impact on you will be less than it will be for your staff. The further you are away from the being the decision maker, typically, the harder that change can be to go through. So that's something just to consider and to be aware of as a leader. And it may not be true in your particular case but I just want to add that when you have more control over something it can be easier to handle and manage and navigate the change. Washington State EAP: So, earlier we talked about how each person has a different response to loss. We talked about how for you there are different factors that influence how you are impacted and time it takes for you to navigate through the change. That's true for your staff as well. And so those factors, again, are things like our work history, our life experiences, our family history, cultural perspectives, and individual personalities. You might want to consider for your team, for the change you have on your mind today, what if any factors that you might be aware of that might be influencing individuals on your team or your team around this change. So, for example, say you know that your team is a team that just really like structure and they really like routine that most people on your team and have that personality and so you know with this change is going to be a lot of unknowns. And so then having that awareness can know that's going to be a factor that's going to impact my team, most likely, and with that knowledge, then you can consider, okay, what can I do? I know that providing as much structure and routine as I can, could be really beneficial for my team. So that might be something to consider. What if any factors might be influencing your team's ability to navigate the change? Maybe there's something that you can do to support them and if there were, say for instance, a recent death of a coworker and then you're making some kind of change to job roles that would be another example where you could bring up memories or difficult feelings. And so if you just remind yourself that's a factor, you could consider what other supports to help your team. You might want to make any of those notes on your change plan. Washington State EAP: So in supporting your team. Another strategy is to be present, which sounds like really easy, of course, a person should be present as a leader but as leaders our attention can be spread across many things. Our attention can be consumed by the change in front of us. We can become overwhelmed ourselves by the change. We can forget about the human side of change. And so I always think of it as a sports team or something like that, when things are challenging you always want to go back to the basics. So as a leader when there's anything stressful or challenging going back to the basics can be really helpful. I'm going to remind you of some of those basics and those are to show up for meetings, whether they're virtual or in person, as appropriate, to notice if you're skipping meetings. To notice if you're multitasking during meetings. When we're multitasking and not being present, it can send a signal to people where they feel a lack of respect or that they're not important. And so, remembering to be present and attend meetings, as much as you're able, to notice if you're being swept away by the change and the demands that come with that change. Washington State EAP: You know you as a leader you can really be an anchor for your team when they're experiencing stress your presence by being calm thoughtful, respectful and grounded. You can be a really a role model to your employees on on how you're wanting them to be. And just help them feel more grounded. You can be the calm in the storm. This is why we talked about the leadership piece first, because in order to be the calm in the storm, you might need some support, or you might need to put some strategies or some plans in place for yourself so that you can be there for your staff and be present with them through this change or through the stressors that people are currently experiencing. As a leader you can provide both work and emotional steady support. Consider what ways you might do this, whether that's through individual meetings or team meetings. For some of you it might mean rolling up your sleeves and doing work, you wouldn't typically do in certain situations that can help you to get a better sense of the change and the impact that the change is having. Your staff can really have a sense of respect for you for getting in there and rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands really in in the change and having a better understanding of what they're experiencing. Washington State EAP: Consider providing your team with more information on the human side of change whether that's your staff attending the on demand webinars that we have or talking about it in your staff meetings. Having informal check ins to see how people are doing as humans and as workers can be really helpful and help them know that you were there and that you're present. We'll talk shortly about the importance of communication, but I want to just talk about that listening in this section right here that listening is so important. Listening to understand your employee’s perspective around this change can be really helpful. You don't have to agree with their perspective but validating their feelings, their thoughts, it can go a long way in people just really feeling heard and feeling like you're there for them. If you have a quote unquote open door policy where people can come to you to talk about their concerns be sure you let people know that. Let your staff know that on a regular basis and with everything changing, make sure that they know how to reach you, when's the best time to reach you, because most likely that's changed during the pandemic. Before we could do walk arounds where we just informally walk around and check in and see how our staff are doing. And for most people, you're not able to do that. If you are able to do that with precautions then I hope that you continue that. But for most people are not able to do that in person. So it's looking for different ways that we can do that virtually. So that might mean using email or instant messaging to just check in and say good morning everyone. How are you doing today? I hope you had a good weekend or I know you've got this big project in front of you. Is there any support that you're needing on this, any questions that you might have? Just having ways to informally check in with people to for them to know that you are present. Washington State EAP: Continue to have consistent team and individual meetings. This is not a time to cut back on those when you're going through change or just even with this pandemic. It's not a time to cut back on meetings, maybe you have to shorten the meetings or change them in some way or another, but consistent meetings can really help. Teams need to be able to feel like there's some kind of consistency in their life. They have something to hold on to. So consider continuing to have those team meetings, even when there's a lot of things that are pulling you in different directions and then consider if there's other ways that you would add. What else would you add to this list of how you can be present to your teams right now? Washington State EAP: Another strategy that is so important is to communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate. You cannot communicate too much with change. Do you know what makes communicating during times of change is really important? Well, when people are having a stress response. It's really difficult for them to hear and retain what people are saying. What you as a leader are saying, and at the same time they're often seeking information. They're needing information but because they're stressed they're looking for the information that they need in that moment, so they might not be hearing the other information that in that moment. They’re feeling like they don't need that particular information. Their stresses is around this one piece of information. Communicating it can be really grounding and reassuring for people. It's important to communicate in lots of different ways- informally, team meetings, it might be newsletters, emails. Whatever ways make sense for you around the change that you have on your mind today. Washington State EAP: William Bridges, I've been talking about him today and his book, managing transitions, in his book he talks about a quote that I'll give. He says most managers and leaders put 10% of their energy into selling the problem and 90% into selling the solution to the problem. So we can often just say, you know, here's the change and just talk about the change. What can be more helpful is to help staff understand the reasons behind the change. Why is the change happening, what's the importance of the change rather than just telling them that this change is happening. So saying something like, you know we've been struggling with being able to access accurate and timely reports, which I know it's been really frustrating and causing a lot of extra work our new software system. It's going to help us make our jobs easier and provide more accurate reports that help customers and have been what they've been requesting. And so that is focused more on explaining why the change is helpful to employees and helpful to those that you serve. Rather than just why, you know, then just the change itself. So consider shifting your energy to communicating the why of the change and the why of the change that's important to the people that you're talking to. Washington State EAP: Another communication strategy is to identify what are some anchors like you as a leader or an anchor for your staff during change. But also, there can be other anchors that you can identify and then you can communicate to your staff. So some other examples of anchors might be what's not changing. So it might be reminding your team that you'll still be working with students or you'll still be serving your customers or you'll still be working together, or identifying those things that are not changing, because we can often get overwhelmed by everything that is changing that our brains need a little help to remember what's not changing. So that could be an anchor. Another anchor might be your goals or your vision or the mission or customer expectations or the reasons for the change. So you might identify what your anchors are for the change that you've thought of today. And then think about how to continually use those and communicate those anchors so that people have something to hang on to through the challenges that go with change. Washington State EAP: So earlier I talked about how people can struggle with relationships when there's been a change. The rumor mill can start when there are changes because people are wanting information and if information is not there, they will create the information. It's really important in thinking about communication to communicate what you do know to let people know, that you don't know certain information, if they're asking you about certain information let people know that you don't know at this time. If you can, let them know when you might know that information and get back to them that would be helpful, but even knowing that you don't know that's information. So consider providing any type of information like that that's helpful and appropriate. With the rumors I think we just need to expect that rumors are going to happen when there's change. And that's the first thing has a leader to expect that it's going to happen. At the same time you can be proactive about it. So if it works with your team culture, you could have a certain amount of time during your team member team meetings where people can talk about what the rumors are. You can just simply say, Okay, let's talk about what rumors are out there around this this change and then talk about it. For some groups that doesn't that wouldn't be a good fit. So another way you could do it is you could just ask your team to let you know when they have questions or if there's rumors that they're hearing about and then what you can do as a leader is you can come up with frequently asked questions and then put the responses which are dispelling the rumors in an email and send that out to everyone or you could go through that at team meetings, or email it out. Just have different ways you're communicating the information. So is there a lot of things that you can do to be proactive around helping people with a rumor challenges that can happen. Washington State EAP: Also, it can be helpful to as we talked about earlier acknowledge any losses that people are having related to the change and to validate people's feelings and also be aware that sometimes people will be excited about the change. Some people might be excited and some people might not be excited. Be open to the fact that some people might have excitement and think about how you're going to handle when you have team members with mixed feelings. Washington State EAP: Alright, so we've talked a lot about a lot of different strategies that people can have in response to the strategies that you can use in response to change. I want to bring us back again to the model that we started off with and just remind you. I've talked about a lot of different things, but you can always come back to this and simply identify where you think your team members are in relation to the change. Then use the strategies that are identified there below- using empathy, validation, helping to create a vision, communicating information, creating plans and structures as best you can, helping people understand their roles and clarify those and understand how they can participate in the change process and acknowledge and recognize people for the hard work that they've been doing and milestones that they've met to celebrate and acknowledge the work that you want to do around the human side of change for this change that you have on your mind today. It's going to help you. The next time you have a change that comes up. It'll be easier. Each time you do it, it takes a little bit of practice and it's not always easy. So just know that the EAP is here for you to help support you. Washington State EAP: We're here for you as an individual, but also as a leader. We're also here for your staff. So if you are part of our EAP network, then you have, it's part of your benefits, and you receive free and confidential counseling. And so to learn more about that or to start the process of getting connected to a counselor, you can call us at 877-313-4455. Washington State EAP: I also want to talk about a support that's available for you specifically as a leader and often I find that leaders aren't aware of this as part of an EAP service that we provide. We provide organizational consultation for leaders and for human resources. If you're needing some additional assistance around the change that you're thinking about today or another change or some other workplace issue you can call that same number 877-313-4455 and then we'll get you started in the process of getting connected to a counselor who has experience and knowledge in working in the public sector and higher education and has expertise on a variety of topics like substance misuse, anger management, suicide, domestic violence, trauma and organizational management. And so these services, whether it's organizational consult consultation or whether it's the counseling sessions, we're offering those right now over the phone or sometimes over the web so that everybody can be safe during the pandemic. Feel free to contact us for any of those services and we'd be happy to be a thought partner with you to help you think about maybe some next steps on how to support your team and we don't do long term organizational development, but we do offer short term, brief consultations and can definitely provide you some assistance. So consider reaching out to us. And here's the phone number again and you can also go to our website eap.wa.gov. We have a lot of information that's there for leaders, as well as for staff. You could also sign up for our monthly newsletter. There's one that's specific for supervisors and you can find that on our main web page there. Washington State EAP: Also want to note that you can download this presentation from our website eap.wa.gov and then you'll see these links that are here. I've included hyperlinks here to other resources and information to help support you around change management around the human side of change. Washington State EAP: You could consider taking a class through the Department of Enterprise Services and they have lots of different classes and that's continually changing, so feel free to check them out. Also, many of you might have access to LinkedIn learning and there are module specific to managing change. And I've identified a few short and longer versions, you could consider. The book again that this presentation is mainly focused on is managing transitions by William Bridges and Susan Bridges. Also I've listed or identified other books that you might find of interest around change you can consider if you'd like to learn more. Also some websites which includes that Marcus Buckingham website that I referred to earlier, the link is there. And you might think about other helpful people that might be around you if you have organizational development consultants that you can utilize or formal or informal mentors can be really helpful too in being thought partners. I've identified a few TED talks that you might consider watching. And again, some of them you know they're on the shorter end of things. So hopefully that would be helpful to have something shorter that you could view. And then if you want to look at some of the information that I'm talking about. That's there as well. Washington State EAP: Lots of information and resources available to you as well. In addition to the EAP but feel free to give us a call if you'd like any additional support and if you are not sure if we are your EAP, just feel free to call your human resources department and check with them and they'll help you access who your EAP is. Washington State EAP: Thank you so much for joining me here today. Hopefully you received some information that was helpful and I look forward to talking with you hopefully some other day and time. All right, thank you so much. Have a good day.