The emotional cycle of change was developed in 1979 by psychologists Don Kelly and Darrell Connor. The cycle outlines some of the common emotions an individual will feel as they experience, react to, and navigate change.
Aspect
Explanation
Concept Overview
– The Emotional Cycle of Change, also known as the Change Curve, is a psychological model that illustrates the emotional stages and reactions individuals typically go through when experiencing change or transition. Developed by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in the context of grief and loss, it has been adapted for understanding how people react to various types of change, including organizational change. The model highlights that individuals may undergo a series of emotions as they adapt to change.
Key Stages
– The Emotional Cycle of Change typically consists of several key stages: 1. Denial: Initially, individuals may deny or resist the change, often feeling shock or disbelief. 2. Anger: As the reality of change sets in, anger or frustration can arise as individuals may resist or resent the change. 3. Bargaining: Some may attempt to negotiate or find ways to cope with the change. 4. Depression: Feelings of sadness, helplessness, or loss may occur as individuals come to terms with the change. 5. Acceptance: Eventually, individuals move toward acceptance and adapt to the new reality. Some models also include stages like exploration, experimentation, and reintegration.
Application in Change Management
– The Emotional Cycle of Change is widely applied in change management, particularly in understanding and supporting individuals and teams during organizational change. Recognizing where people are on the emotional curve helps leaders and change agents tailor communication and support strategies.
Leadership and Communication
– Effective leadership during times of change involves acknowledging the emotional aspects and stages of the change process. Key principles include empathetic communication, active listening, and providing psychological safety for individuals to express their feelings and concerns.
Resistance to Change
– Resistance to change is a common response, often occurring in the denial and anger stages. Leaders and change agents should address resistance by addressing concerns, providing information, and involving employees in the change process.
Grief and Loss Connection
– The Emotional Cycle of Change shares similarities with the stages of grief and loss, highlighting that significant changes can trigger emotional responses akin to grieving. Recognizing this connection helps individuals and organizations manage change more effectively.
Individual Variations
– It’s important to note that individuals may progress through the emotional stages at different rates, and not everyone experiences every stage. Some individuals may move more quickly toward acceptance, while others may linger in certain stages.
Support and Resources
– Organizations often provide support mechanisms such as counseling, training, and employee assistance programs to help individuals navigate the emotional challenges of change.
The emotional cycle of change describes the emotions most of us experience during the change process.
While the cycle has distinct phases, not everyone will experience the same emotions or in the same order.
What’s important is that the individual uses the cycle to better anticipate their emotional journey as they encounter new experiences.
The emotional cycle of change is relevant to almost any personal or professional context provided the individual is seeking out the change themselves.
This is the sort of experience that starts with unbridled optimism which transitions to realism, pessimism, and self-doubt.
The five stages of the emotional cycle of change
The emotional cycle of change has five phases. Let’s describe the process from the perspective of an entrepreneur who has just started a new business.
1 – Uninformed optimism
Also known as the honeymoon period, this is the most exciting phase where the entrepreneur imagines the possibilities and potential of the new enterprise.
The individual can only imagine best-case scenarios since any obstacles or setbacks have not yet been experienced.
Emotions: excitement, joy, anticipation.
2 – Informed pessimism
In the second phase, the entrepreneur has been working long enough to realize how much there is to do or learn.
Given these obstacles, they feel less positive about their chances of success and may question whether the endeavor is worth it.
Emotions: frustration, fear, anger, anxiety.
3 – Valley of despair
The third phase is the valley of despair, a critical juncture where most become overwhelmed and admit defeat.
While this point represents rock bottom, those who push forward may be rewarded for their perseverance.
The valley of despair was named by authors and business partners Brian Moran and Michael Lennington.
Kelly and Connor were more optimistic, calling it “hopeful realism”.
Many entrepreneurs find themselves moving between the first three phases as they try something new, realize it’s too hard, and rationalize that doing something else would be easier.
Emotions: despair, shame, hopelessness.
4 – Informed pessimism
Positive emotions start to return in the fourth phase as the entrepreneur starts to believe that success is at least possible if not likely.
Hope and faith drive the entrepreneur closer to their objective through hard work and determination. Small wins build critical momentum.
Emotions: hope, optimism, humility, happiness.
5 – Success and fulfillment
In the final phase, the entrepreneur has launched a new product or seen their company reach unicorn status. In other words, they see and experience the results of change.
Emotions: gratitude, contentment, pride.
When to Use the Emotional Cycle of Change:
The Emotional Cycle of Change is suitable in various business scenarios:
Organizational Change: When organizations undergo significant changes such as mergers, restructuring, or technological transformations.
Leadership Development: In leadership development programs to enhance leaders’ ability to support their teams through change.
Employee Engagement: To improve employee engagement by fostering a culture of empathy and emotional support during transitions.
Personal Growth: On an individual level, for personal development and resilience in navigating life changes.
How to Apply the Emotional Cycle of Change:
To apply the Emotional Cycle of Change effectively, consider the following steps:
Assessment: Assess where individuals or teams are in the emotional cycle regarding a specific change initiative.
Emotional Intelligence Training: Provide training in emotional intelligence to leaders and employees to enhance their ability to navigate change empathetically.
Communication: Tailor communication strategies to address the emotional needs of individuals at each phase of the cycle.
Support Systems: Establish support systems, such as peer mentoring or counseling, to help individuals manage emotions and adapt to change.
Feedback and Evaluation: Continuously gather feedback and evaluate the effectiveness of your emotional intelligence and change management strategies.
Expected Outcomes of Using the Emotional Cycle of Change:
When using the Emotional Cycle of Change effectively, expect the following outcomes:
Increased Resilience: Individuals and teams develop greater resilience and adaptability in the face of change.
Enhanced Employee Engagement: A culture of empathy and emotional support leads to higher employee engagement and commitment.
Reduced Resistance: Acknowledging and addressing emotional challenges early can help reduce resistance to change initiatives.
Improved Leadership: Leaders become more skilled in guiding their teams through emotional transitions, fostering trust and loyalty.
Successful Change Implementation: Effective navigation of the emotional cycle contributes to the successful implementation of organizational changes.
Drawbacks of the Emotional Cycle of Change:
While the Emotional Cycle of Change is valuable, it also has potential drawbacks:
Subjectivity: Assessing individuals’ emotional states can be subjective and challenging to measure quantitatively.
Time-Consuming: Addressing emotional needs in change management can extend timelines for change initiatives.
Resource Intensive: Providing emotional support and training in emotional intelligence may require additional resources.
Key takeaways:
The emotional cycle of change describes the emotions most of us experience during the change process.
While the cycle has distinct phases, not everyone will experience the same emotions or in the same order. What’s important is that the individual uses the cycle to better anticipate and navigate their emotional journey as they encounter new experiences.
The five phases of the emotional cycle of change include uninformed optimism, informed pessimism, the valley of despair (hopeful realism), informed pessimism, and success and fulfillment.
Key Highlights
Development and Purpose: The emotional cycle of change was developed in 1979 by psychologists Don Kelly and Darrell Connor to outline the common emotions individuals go through when facing and navigating change.
Understanding the Cycle: This cycle describes the emotional journey people undergo during times of change, helping them anticipate and cope with their feelings.
Varied Emotions: Although the cycle has defined phases, not everyone will experience the same emotions or follow the same order. However, it provides a framework for individuals to anticipate their emotional responses during change.
Applicability: The emotional cycle of change is relevant across personal and professional contexts, especially when individuals actively seek out change themselves.
Phases of the Cycle:
Uninformed Optimism (Honeymoon Period): This is the initial exciting phase where individuals see the possibilities and potential of the change. They often envision best-case scenarios due to the absence of obstacles.
Informed Pessimism (Reality Check): As individuals gain more experience, they realize the challenges and obstacles ahead. This leads to a decrease in positivity and may prompt questioning the feasibility of success.
Valley of Despair (Critical Juncture): Often considered a breaking point, this phase involves feeling overwhelmed and contemplating giving up. Some authors label it “hopeful realism” since pushing through can bring rewards.
Informed Pessimism (Positive Turn): Positivity gradually returns as individuals start believing in the possibility of success. Hope, determination, and small wins contribute to building momentum.
Success and Fulfillment: The final phase marks the achievement of the change goal. This could be launching a new product or attaining a significant milestone. Positive emotions like gratitude and contentment emerge.
Key Takeaways:
The emotional cycle of change provides insight into the typical emotional experiences during the process of change.
The cycle’s phases offer a framework for anticipating and navigating emotional responses to change.
The five phases include uninformed optimism, informed pessimism, the valley of despair (or hopeful realism), informed pessimism (positive turn), and success and fulfillment.
Convergent thinking occurs when the solution to a problem can be found by applying established rules and logical reasoning. Whereas divergent thinking is an unstructured problem-solving method where participants are encouraged to develop many innovative ideas or solutions to a given problem. Where convergent thinking might work for larger, mature organizations where divergent thinking is more suited for startups and innovative companies.
The concept of cognitive biases was introduced and popularized by the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972. Biases are seen as systematic errors and flaws that make humans deviate from the standards of rationality, thus making us inept at making good decisions under uncertainty.
Second-order thinking is a means of assessing the implications of our decisions by considering future consequences. Second-order thinking is a mental model that considers all future possibilities. It encourages individuals to think outside of the box so that they can prepare for every and eventuality. It also discourages the tendency for individuals to default to the most obvious choice.
Lateral thinking is a business strategy that involves approaching a problem from a different direction. The strategy attempts to remove traditionally formulaic and routine approaches to problem-solving by advocating creative thinking, therefore finding unconventional ways to solve a known problem. This sort of non-linear approach to problem-solving, can at times, create a big impact.
Bounded rationality is a concept attributed to Herbert Simon, an economist and political scientist interested in decision-making and how we make decisions in the real world. In fact, he believed that rather than optimizing (which was the mainstream view in the past decades) humans follow what he called satisficing.
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes a cognitive bias where people with low ability in a task overestimate their ability to perform that task well. Consumers or businesses that do not possess the requisite knowledge make bad decisions. What’s more, knowledge gaps prevent the person or business from seeing their mistakes.
Occam’s Razor states that one should not increase (beyond reason) the number of entities required to explain anything. All things being equal, the simplest solution is often the best one. The principle is attributed to 14th-century English theologian William of Ockham.
The Lindy Effect is a theory about the ageing of non-perishable things, like technology or ideas. Popularized by author Nicholas Nassim Taleb, the Lindy Effect states that non-perishable things like technology age – linearly – in reverse. Therefore, the older an idea or a technology, the same will be its life expectancy.
Antifragility was first coined as a term by author, and options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragility is a characteristic of systems that thrive as a result of stressors, volatility, and randomness. Therefore, Antifragile is the opposite of fragile. Where a fragile thing breaks up to volatility; a robust thing resists volatility. An antifragile thing gets stronger from volatility (provided the level of stressors and randomness doesn’t pass a certain threshold).
Systems thinking is a holistic means of investigating the factors and interactions that could contribute to a potential outcome. It is about thinking non-linearly, and understanding the second-order consequences of actions and input into the system.
Vertical thinking, on the other hand, is a problem-solving approach that favors a selective, analytical, structured, and sequential mindset. The focus of vertical thinking is to arrive at a reasoned, defined solution.
Maslow’s Hammer, otherwise known as the law of the instrument or the Einstellung effect, is a cognitive bias causing an over-reliance on a familiar tool. This can be expressed as the tendency to overuse a known tool (perhaps a hammer) to solve issues that might require a different tool. This problem is persistent in the business world where perhaps known tools or frameworks might be used in the wrong context (like business plans used as planning tools instead of only investors’ pitches).
The Peter Principle was first described by Canadian sociologist Lawrence J. Peter in his 1969 book The Peter Principle. The Peter Principle states that people are continually promoted within an organization until they reach their level of incompetence.
The straw man fallacy describes an argument that misrepresents an opponent’s stance to make rebuttal more convenient. The straw man fallacy is a type of informal logical fallacy, defined as a flaw in the structure of an argument that renders it invalid.
The Streisand Effect is a paradoxical phenomenon where the act of suppressing information to reduce visibility causes it to become more visible. In 2003, Streisand attempted to suppress aerial photographs of her Californian home by suing photographer Kenneth Adelman for an invasion of privacy. Adelman, who Streisand assumed was paparazzi, was instead taking photographs to document and study coastal erosion. In her quest for more privacy, Streisand’s efforts had the opposite effect.
As highlighted by German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer in the paper “Heuristic Decision Making,” the term heuristic is of Greek origin, meaning “serving to find out or discover.” More precisely, a heuristic is a fast and accurate way to make decisions in the real world, which is driven by uncertainty.
The recognition heuristic is a psychological model of judgment and decision making. It is part of a suite of simple and economical heuristics proposed by psychologists Daniel Goldstein and Gerd Gigerenzer. The recognition heuristic argues that inferences are made about an object based on whether it is recognized or not.
The representativeness heuristic was first described by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The representativeness heuristic judges the probability of an event according to the degree to which that event resembles a broader class. When queried, most will choose the first option because the description of John matches the stereotype we may hold for an archaeologist.
The take-the-best heuristic is a decision-making shortcut that helps an individual choose between several alternatives. The take-the-best (TTB) heuristic decides between two or more alternatives based on a single good attribute, otherwise known as a cue. In the process, less desirable attributes are ignored.
The bundling bias is a cognitive bias in e-commerce where a consumer tends not to use all of the products bought as a group, or bundle. Bundling occurs when individual products or services are sold together as a bundle. Common examples are tickets and experiences. The bundling bias dictates that consumers are less likely to use each item in the bundle. This means that the value of the bundle and indeed the value of each item in the bundle is decreased.
The Barnum Effect is a cognitive bias where individuals believe that generic information – which applies to most people – is specifically tailored for themselves.
First-principles thinking – sometimes called reasoning from first principles – is used to reverse-engineer complex problems and encourage creativity. It involves breaking down problems into basic elements and reassembling them from the ground up. Elon Musk is among the strongest proponents of this way of thinking.
The ladder of inference is a conscious or subconscious thinking process where an individual moves from a fact to a decision or action. The ladder of inference was created by academic Chris Argyris to illustrate how people form and then use mental models to make decisions.
Goodhart’s Law is named after British monetary policy theorist and economist Charles Goodhart. Speaking at a conference in Sydney in 1975, Goodhart said that “any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.” Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
The Six Thinking Hats model was created by psychologist Edward de Bono in 1986, who noted that personality type was a key driver of how people approached problem-solving. For example, optimists view situations differently from pessimists. Analytical individuals may generate ideas that a more emotional person would not, and vice versa.
The Mandela effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remembers an event differently from how it occurred. The Mandela effect was first described in relation to Fiona Broome, who believed that former South African President Nelson Mandela died in prison during the 1980s. While Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and died 23 years later, Broome remembered news coverage of his death in prison and even a speech from his widow. Of course, neither event occurred in reality. But Broome was later to discover that she was not the only one with the same recollection of events.
The bandwagon effect tells us that the more a belief or idea has been adopted by more people within a group, the more the individual adoption of that idea might increase within the same group. This is the psychological effect that leads to herd mentality. What in marketing can be associated with social proof.
Moore’s law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years. This observation was made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 and it become a guiding principle for the semiconductor industry and has had far-reaching implications for technology as a whole.
Disruptive innovation as a term was first described by Clayton M. Christensen, an American academic and business consultant whom The Economist called “the most influential management thinker of his time.” Disruptive innovation describes the process by which a product or service takes hold at the bottom of a market and eventually displaces established competitors, products, firms, or alliances.
Value migration was first described by author Adrian Slywotzky in his 1996 book Value Migration – How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition. Value migration is the transferal of value-creating forces from outdated business models to something better able to satisfy consumer demands.
The bye-now effect describes the tendency for consumers to think of the word “buy” when they read the word “bye”. In a study that tracked diners at a name-your-own-price restaurant, each diner was asked to read one of two phrases before ordering their meal. The first phrase, “so long”, resulted in diners paying an average of $32 per meal. But when diners recited the phrase “bye bye” before ordering, the average price per meal rose to $45.
Groupthink occurs when well-intentioned individuals make non-optimal or irrational decisions based on a belief that dissent is impossible or on a motivation to conform. Groupthink occurs when members of a group reach a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the alternatives and their consequences.
A stereotype is a fixed and over-generalized belief about a particular group or class of people. These beliefs are based on the false assumption that certain characteristics are common to every individual residing in that group. Many stereotypes have a long and sometimes controversial history and are a direct consequence of various political, social, or economic events. Stereotyping is the process of making assumptions about a person or group of people based on various attributes, including gender, race, religion, or physical traits.
Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Murphy’s Law was named after aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy. During his time working at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, Murphy cursed a technician who had improperly wired an electrical component and said, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.”
The law of unintended consequences was first mentioned by British philosopher John Locke when writing to parliament about the unintended effects of interest rate rises. However, it was popularized in 1936 by American sociologist Robert K. Merton who looked at unexpected, unanticipated, and unintended consequences and their impact on society.
Fundamental attribution error is a bias people display when judging the behavior of others. The tendency is to over-emphasize personal characteristics and under-emphasize environmental and situational factors.
Outcome bias describes a tendency to evaluate a decision based on its outcome and not on the process by which the decision was reached. In other words, the quality of a decision is only determined once the outcome is known. Outcome bias occurs when a decision is based on the outcome of previous events without regard for how those events developed.
Hindsight bias is the tendency for people to perceive past events as more predictable than they actually were. The result of a presidential election, for example, seems more obvious when the winner is announced. The same can also be said for the avid sports fan who predicted the correct outcome of a match regardless of whether their team won or lost. Hindsight bias, therefore, is the tendency for an individual to convince themselves that they accurately predicted an event before it happened.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
