Negative Change - How Humans Respond to It

Human Response to Negative Change. Know where you are on a curve. Learn how to cope with negative change and become more resilient.
​This blog is part II of a three part series from My Nu Ways and Nutrition, Health & Wellness Coaching student Angelika and her business partner Melanie.

We learned that the Change Curve describes the natural response to change, However it is usually a very personal and individual one - regardless if facing good or and change. it could take only seconds for some people to recognise any variation in their emotions when experiencing disruptive sudden change. For others, it might take longer - some hours, days, months. This is not a linear or step by step process either. It all depends on out personal resilience and on how we cope with sudden changes.

Know the change curve to take counter actions

So what does this mean for us in real life to know the Change Curve?

Knowing the change curve allows us to:

• understand that humans naturally strive for control and predictability. Humans tend to not like change per se - no matter if its good or bad change. They would rather keep the status quo.
• accept that many things are out of our control range - and we can only control how to cope with and response to it.
• acknowledge our emotional turmoil when we get impacted by a sudden change. It is totally fine to be emotional when facing change. And since we know the Change Curve now we can try to get an outside look on it and map out where we are on the curve currently and take counter actions with the intent to ease the transition and influence the adaption to change. Same applies when we want to help others go through change.

We will cover in this blog article the counter actions that you can apply to yourself to help you smoother moving forward or to others to support their transition through negatively perceived even threatening change.

Support to overcome Negative Change and to influence for outcome

So what are the possible counter actions to support negative change impacts and influence for outcome following along the Change Curve we already know (Source: Kübler Ross Change Curve RT). What can we do if a negative change happens to us or to o there around us in order to go through negative change and move on?

1. SHOCK: Show empathy to the ones who experience shock (including yourself!).
2. DENIAL: Encourage CAUTIOUS reality testing. Look around to see what the facts are.
3. FRUSTRATION: Legitimise feelings: It's ok to feel frustrated.
4. DEPRESSION: Encouraging support with solution focus. You need to to process. Eventually you will find a solution...
5. TESTING: Nurture the spark of positivity! Eventually positivity and the need to move one comes. Nurture it.
6. ACCEPTANCE: Appreciation and integration. reflect on what happened and how you moved on. Encourage it in others.

Progress is impossible without Change (even Negative Change)

"Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a high intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor. Perhaps, in a way, that's where humanity is now: about to discover we're not so smart as we thought we were, will be forced by life to surrender our attacks and defences which avail to us of nothing, and finally break through into the collective beauty of the we really are."

Marianne Williamson

So let's summarise the take aways:

• Progress is impossible without change
• Know the Change Curve - Be able to map the Status! And also know how to support others in these different change phases.
• Ask the right questions that enable and encourage reflection and own problem solving, Angelika and Melanie's MY NU WAYS Programs are designed to help you in these situations. They coach you through change, but they also enable you to build the communication and coaching skills, resilience and mindset you need in other to proser in this ever changing world - and to become an Agent of Change!

Authors

Angelika Sac-Fidrych - My NU Ways Programs
Melanie Wild-Schleiffelder - My NU Ways Programs
Founder and CEO of iMellan GmBh. Angelika has a masters Degree in Teaching, Translation and Interpretation. She is a Project and Change Leader, People and Coach Trainer, management Coach and mentor and can speak three languages (Polish, English and German).

​Posted with permission. Link to full blog post ​https://mynuways.com/human-response-to-negative-change/