Going Well

Endings In Organisations

THE OWNER of a pet cemetery in Cornwall has recently given over one corner of the graveyard for children left distraught by the death of their cyberpet, to send their virtual animal for burial. For £4.50 their much loved tamagochy will be placed in a miniature pine or wicker work coffin, buried in a grave marked with a wooden marker and a photograph of the grave sent to the child with the name, age and address of the deceased entered in a book of remembrance.

Business has been brisk and popular. More importantly, children have again triumphed in their powerful straightforwardness and found an outlet for their grief. The brief life of their virtual animal has been acknowledged and its death mourned.

Along with a number of other families, a part of our own garden is given over to a mini-graveyard, harbouring beautiful koi carp brought down - or in this case up - by a thunderstorm and fledgling birds too weak to escape the neighbour's cat. The burials have been poignant and meaningful; the children feel, cry and move on. They can later pass by the 'burial site' and talk easily about the ceremony and who is lying under the earth.

In our organisational and personal lives however, the loss involved in change is less frequently or so elegantly acknowledged. Having worked as a consultant in public and private sector organisations for twenty-five years, I have yet to experience one that is not undergoing some form of change, be it imposed, elicited or promoted.

This is hardly surprising judging by the words of Richard Bach (1977): ' Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you are alive, it isn't. '

There is a consequence, however. In the move from system A to system B, from autonomy to takeover, amalgamation to downsizing, empowerment to flatter structures, teleworking to team working, portfolio careers to no careers at all, there is an inherent loss.

There appears to be an assumption that we can move seamlessly from one state to another without feeling a thing. Or if we do, the associated feelings and behaviours go underground with vehement and passionate debates around desks and bars as individuals grapple with the sense or no sense of the latest corporate crisis.

Loss is pan of our daily life, whether missing the train, a deadline, a contract, a lunch break or the recently promoted colleague. John Adams et al (1976) have shown that the cycle of self-esteem moves through a typical sequence irrespective of whether the change is positive or negative, elicited or imposed (see Fig. 1).

So, for instance, the news about the wanted promotion, the merger, the takeover, the daughter's university place or the feared redundancy can elicit a similar response.

This response is manifest in a similar pattern and sequence. First, there is shock or disbelief, second, stunned denial or minimisation - an important holding position or preparation time for the third stage that we subconsciously know is to follow.

This third stage is one of lowness or depression, experienced by different people in different ways - inertia, debility, or a lack of interest in daily tasks, work, eating, sex. Sometimes there can be an over compensation resulting in addictive or compulsive behaviour in the same areas.

Throughout these first three stages there is a mourning, a yearning for the old system or state. For example, we may look to earlier, often seemingly halcyon, days before the new chief executive arrived with radical ideas for change. Or we may look back to when we had a job, or before the takeover took place. Even when changes are positive, we can mourn the loss of our freedom, energy and privacy before the first child was born, or the lesser responsibility the previous job enjoyed. It is natural to feel this loss.

All around us our culture tends to encourage positive responses, adrenalin rushes and going for the quick material fix. There is little to remind us that balances are necessary - that the brightest sunray has a shadow and that Easter Sunday is as it is because of Good Friday, not despite it. If we can acknowledge and move through the low states we can begin to distance and let go of the old situation. There is a turning point after which we begin to look forward rather than back. For instance, of anticipating what life will be like under the new directors or with a particular new member of staff. We may test out new behaviours such as initiating meeting new colleagues or going for the career counselling we have been promising ourselves for months.

As we move forward we attempt to make sense of the whole transition. We may question why the takeover was necessary or why a relationship needed to change. Eventually, the transition becomes so integrated that it no longer seems separate from the rest of our life.

Rarely, however, is life so straightforward. The job change may coincide with the company buyout, relationships crashing at home, the youngest child leaving for a gap year and an elderly parent suddenly falling ill or dying.

Like the children with their deceased cyberpets, maybe one day we too will have organisational graveyards to visit, where we can remember the workplaces we have known and enjoyed.

References

Adams, ]. et al (1976) Transitions: Understanding and Managing Personal Change. London: Martin Robinson.
Bach, R. (1997) Illusions - The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. London: Pan.

Biographical Note

Vanessa Helps is founding Director of Going Well, a service providing clients the opportunity to develop from endings in their personal and organisational life.