Cure “Mental Whiplash”: Change Management Tips For Employees

Energizing Change Management Tips For Employees

I’ll give you the uncomfortable news first: there’s no ‘pause’ button for the constant flux we’re all in right now.

But there are change management tips for employees to siphon off stress so you don’t get ‘mental whiplash’ from re-adapting so often.

2 Critical Frames For Handling Change

Change management tips become more powerful the clearer you are on context. Today, leaders and employees need to be conscious that:

1. People cannot continue to use the same systems or thinking they’ve always used to process their lives and work. (The proof is all around us – extremely capable people burnt out and struggling.)
2. That’s because humans are not built for the velocity of change we’ve all experienced since 2020. Nervous systems are taxed from stress responses to ever-increasing changes in personal and professional demands.

Most people think they have to move faster to ‘break through’ and maybe, one day, finally keep pace with the change.

On a factory floor that’s exactly how you optimize for efficiency. But in humans, less so. After all, it’s only going to get busier in the years to come. So the answer becomes less about expanding capacity and more about a new perspective.

My biggest change management tip for employees is to focus on what I call “regenerative resilience”.

How Do You Develop “Regenerative Resilience”?

Advance warning: we’re about to get into some inner mind work here. But it ties in with practical, nuts-and-bolts techniques later. Don’t skip this.

To re-anchor yourself when everything changes, start with STILLNESS.

• When we are still, we quiet our minds.
• When we quiet our minds, we stop our thoughts.
• When we stop our thoughts, we stop our resistance.
• When we stop our resistance, we are more open to hear and listen.
• When we listen, we connect to our infinite being, we expand what’s possible and open doorways to more impactful, visionary, and innovative solutions.

When we are still we improve our 30,000 foot vision of what’s really happening, what’s possible in the situation. You focus on “what can I add or say?”, and “what’s really important and not important that requires my attention and energy?”

Modern genius Einstein says solutions come from this place, not the place where the problem originated.

“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” — Albert Einstein

The Pathway From Overwhelm To Stillness

Tapping into your regenerative resilience can be as simple as a 10-step process:

1. Understand what changes trigger you. Ask why?
2. Identify what’s in your control and outside your control.
3. Step back, breathe, and practice self-compassion when you feel overwhelmed.
4. Identify what drains your energy and what gives you energy.
5. Set boundaries around your drains. Make time for the givers.
6. Challenge your thoughts and assumptions. Many are not true
7. Prioritize the most important things to do today.
8. Allow for completion, not perfection.
9. Ask for help. Talk to a friend, partner and colleague. Let them in on your situation.
10. 10X your self-care routine to refuel your tank. (e.g. exercise, meditation, walks in nature, sleep, eating well.)

A final change management tip for employees:

When you find yourself in a constant state of overwhelm your reactions, decisions, and responses are born from fear or in reaction to stress. Take a deep breath and remember to find stillness so you can proactively create from visions states that are more relaxed and connected to optimism and potential. Your nervous system will thank you.