Figure 1: How Employees React to Change
Let’s walk through the typical transition phases from the employee’s perspective.
Phase 1: Initial Excitement
In the early phase, people form an initial excitement and open mind for what
benefits a cloud adoption program will have for the company. In this context
the status quo seems intact. Teams involved directly or indirectly generally
know what is expected of them and how to react. The new initiative looks like
a typical project. All the participants easily navigate the program’s milestones
using existing process guardrails.
Phase 2: Realization of Effort
Once they learn more details, they start to ask questions as to how the initia-
tive will impact their roles and those of their team’s. They become more inquis-
itive, as they become more informed. They start to realize the program’s poten-
tial consequences on their day to day duties. People become aware of the
magnitude of the depth and breadth of potential change. Their behavior shifts
from cooperation to resistance. They seek refuge in multiple forms of denial
such as rejection and diversion. They start to make comments such as “This
too shall pass” and “We’re special, the cloud will not work for us given our
unique business requirements.”
The Realization phase is the most critical time in the cloud adoption life-cycle.
If questions remain unanswered, employees will start to build their own, almost
always, ill-informed narratives. These false narratives, and any associated emo-
tions of fear or panic, start to dominate the employees’ motivation. They may
start to handicap themselves or their teams with unrealistic goals and poorly
54 | THE DOPPLER | SPRING 2017