Chapter 3

Fight or Flight— Decide on Your Strategy

In This Chapter

• choosing a fight or flight option
• how to let go of the past
• organizational change self-assessment
• logic or emotion choice exercise
• the optimum balance exercise

Organizational change brings with it many potential career changes. Some of the changes you control and some you do not. The good news is that the overall impact of the change and its implications for your career are still largely in your hands.

Essentially you have two choices: fight or flight. Fight means you commit to accept change and find ways to survive. Flight means you don’t even try to adjust to the change and you choose to leave the organization instead. In many cases, flight is an acceptable decision if you are ready to leave the organization and you are able to work out critical details such as severance and retirement packages, or you can access job placement services that will quickly lead to a new job. However, the hard truth is that you cannot do both.

If your decision is to stay and fight, then do it. But it is not an acceptable option to physically stay with the organization and take flight emotionally so that you become a “dead career walking” employee. Either stay and nurture your career, and help your organization work through the change, or move on. But if you decide to leave, make sure you don’t jump ship without a lifeboat.

Don’t throw out the empty threat of leaving your organization without a place to go. The statement, “I’ll quit if you move me to that position,” might just elicit an “OK, so quit,” response from your manager or boss. In fact, most organizations are very happy to give up their demanding, unyielding employees during change. A miscalculated bluff can take you out of this poker game permanently.

Choose a Fight or Flight Option

So when is a flight strategy your best option to take? Clearly, if you are close enough to retirement and are financially able to make the move, then gracefully bowing out is a good option. Or perhaps an acceptable severance package will offer the resources and time to start a business of your own or transition to a new job and career. For most faced with a flight decision, the answer is individualized, so a complete discussion here is impossible. However, some economic and workplace realities are worth noting.

First, changing jobs or even being unemployed for extended periods of time is no longer a red flag for prospective employers. Lifetime employment is the absolute exception to the rule. Millions of workers—both blue-collar and white-collar—have searched in vain for new jobs since the 2009 economic collapse and many are just now returning to the workforce as the economy slowly improves. Secondly, millions have taken advantage of forced flight decisions to enrich their personal and private lives and have, as the cliché goes, “made lemonade from lemons.” The point is, employers are looking for talent and abilities, not merely longevity on the job.

Stay and Fight

Fighting does not mean to stay physically but to mentally checkout. For a fight decision to succeed, you must be proactive and engaged with the new organization. The first step toward this objective is to learn as much as possible about the changes being implemented. You need to learn what is really behind the corporate rhetoric about the goals and purposes of the change. Is the rationale believable? What does it really mean, for example, when the vice president of human resources says the restructuring was done to “ensure our long-term growth and competitive position in the future”? This statement could mean just about anything, from “We need to get rid of all the deadbeats in our company who have been dragging us down,” to “We are promoting everyone to higher, more responsible positions to handle the business of the company we just acquired.”

Unless you are one of the initiators or even an implementer, then you have little chance of knowing every nuance behind a change or knowing the finer details of management’s change strategy. Your most viable approach is to develop your own change survival strategy that acknowledges and works with this corporate reality, including the simple act of letting go.

Let Go

Letting go of the past can be one of the most difficult challenges to getting on board with an organizational change initiative. No matter how well you understand what is ahead, you still feel uncomfortable and insecure as you leave habits behind. That’s why a proactive “here’s what I want to do next” approach to the changes happening around you is so important. Remember when you were a kid and you played on that piece of playground equipment that consisted of a series of hanging rings? The object was to grasp a ring in each hand and then let go of the last one as you reached for the next. The hardest part was letting go of one ring not knowing if you were strong enough to make the transition to the next. But how do you find your next “career ring”? What do you do if the next ring you reach for isn’t in sight or seems to be out of reach?

A first step toward finding that elusive next ring is to talk to as many people as possible on all levels of the organization about their perceptions of the change and to get their perspective on how they may see your future role. However, be prepared to accept their honest and candid feedback, since the feedback may mean it’s time for you to take the flight option; and as we’ve discussed, flight may just be the best career choice of your life.

Tools, Techniques, and Exercises

The following tools, techniques, and exercises will help you evaluate your options during change so you will make the best decision possible for your career and life.

Organizational Change Self-Assessment

The following Organizational Change Self-Assessment is designed to help you look more objectively at change and at your current career status. It can help you understand how you got to where you are today and how you can get to where you want to be in the future—all in the context of the changes you are presently experiencing in your organization. But you’ll find it is still a useful learning tool to help you assess or reassess your current career path in a stable (at least for the time being), functioning organization.

1. In general, how do you think the changes in your workplace will affect your present job and responsibilities?
   
   
2. How do you think these changes might alter the direction your career is headed?
   
   
3. What have you done in the past that has improved your ability to adapt to these changes?
   
   
4. What can you do in the future to improve your ability to adapt to the next changes?
   
   
5. How can these changes help you achieve your career goals and destinations?
   
   
6. How might these changes negatively affect your ability to reach your career goals and destinations?
   
   
7. What decisions have you been forced to make about your career as a result of changes made in the organization?
   
   
8. Review your answers to the questions above. Are you satisfied with how things have turned out? Why or why not?
   
   
9. What are the most valuable lessons you have learned as a result of change as it relates to your career?
   
   
10. Are you happy/satisfied with the direction that change has taken your career? Why or why not? If not, what can you do to make this situation more acceptable to you?

Logic vs. Emotion Exercise

Now that you have completed your Organizational Change Self-Assessment, this is an excellent time to reflect on your current situation and role in the organization. Here are some key questions:

• Are your answers consistent with your fight or flight decision? Are both you and the organization moving in the same direction concerning your goals?
• Is there enough compatibility in these goals and long-term objectives to keep your working relationship productive for years to come?

Before you answer these very important career-defining questions, it is critical that you determine if you are making your decisions based on logic or emotion.

Logic or Emotion?

Logical decisions are made based on facts and actual circumstances that are pertinent to the situation. Although subject to interpretation, these facts are real and are accepted by everyone. Emotional decisions are not necessarily based on facts. Emotion is how people react to and feel about changes and is greatly influenced by how they are personally affected. At times, emotional responses can be illogical and counterproductive, or even destructive. Sometimes though, listening to “what your heart tells you” is the right thing to do.

To help you better understand the influence as well as distinction between logic and emotion in decisions, answer either E (emotion) or L ( logic) for each of the following circumstances.

Is it Logic or Emotion?

Despite the fact that he still has the same job after the reorganization, John is very angry that he was passed over for a newly established position and is threatening to resign.

As part of its restructuring, the company has decided to exit a large part of its business in which Alice has spent much of her career. Even though she still has a job, she decides to seek employment with another organization that can better utilize her experience and expertise.

Because her job has been significantly changed as a result of reorganization, Helen has just learned she will be required to learn many new skills to continue in her current position. She gets very upset by this and storms into her boss’s office to complain about all the time and effort it will take her to learn these new skills.

Fran is trying to learn as much as he can about the changes being implemented throughout the organization. He talks to as many people as he can on all levels to gain their perspective on the changes taking place. He seeks ways of supporting these changes and understanding his role in the new organizational structure. As a result, he is able to understand the changes, as well as his new role.

Lou has been hearing rumors lately about some big changes that are going to be implemented in the company. The more he thinks about these changes, the more concerned he gets. He can’t sleep at night and becomes more irritable both at work and at home. This begins to affect both the quality of his work and his relationships with his wife and children.

Answers: Emotion; Logic; Emotion; Logic; Emotion.

We can combine the fight-or-flight and logic-versus-emotion factors in a single matrix. The figure below combines these four factors in one model and shows their interrelationships.

Figure 3.1. Matrix for Reactions to Organizational Change

This model illustrates how either logic or emotion can be part of a fight-or-flight reaction to organizational change. In reality, there will always be some emotion associated with logic and conversely some logic to every emotional decision. Similarly, there still may be some flight tendencies when someone decides to fight and vice versa. For the sake of clarity, the examples here are focused on either one or the other of these dimensions.

In the upper left-hand corner of the matrix you see a fight response based mostly on logic. In this quadrant is an example of how an individual with this mindset might respond to change. The quadrant on the upper right shows a flight tendency based on logic. You can see that in this circumstance the decision is to leave the organization based on the facts as seen from the person’s own perspective. In the lower left-hand corner is an emotional fight response. This person has decided to make his stand and prove something. In the lower right-hand quadrant, this same emotion can cause someone to feel unappreciated and decide to leave and find a job elsewhere.

1. In what quadrant would you place yourself and why?
   
   
2. Are you satisfied with the way that you would respond to future change? Explain.
   
   
3. What do you think might be a more productive response to change given your situation?
   
   
4. Do you believe you can control how you respond to changes that occur in your personal and professional life? Explain.

The Optimum Balance Exercise

Before we leave this subject of logic versus emotion in career crossroad decisions, it is important to emphasize that there are no right or wrong answers. You have to balance both logic and emotion in decisions as important as these.

Making decisions based solely on logic may seem the right thing to do, but without an emotional appeal there may be no commitment or motivation. If a decision of this magnitude were to be made solely on logic, you would run the risk of thinking you’re doing the right thing, but still feeling empty and unhappy about it.

Conversely, if decisions are based on emotion alone, you may initially have great excitement but may quickly lose this enthusiasm if it becomes clear you are not moving in a logical or reasonable direction. If you rely only on emotion to make the decision, you may feel good about what you are doing, but may sacrifice many things in order to follow your heart.

Ideally, you should have a balance of emotion and logic in any decision. No one else can really put themselves in your place, so it’s up to you to look at these factors and do what is best according to the situation.

Here are a few hints to help you find and maintain this balance of emotion and logic in making important possible career-defining decisions:

• Put a picture of your family or loved ones on your desk and take a long look at it. (emotion)
• Think about how your decisions might affect them. Then write or update your resume. (logic)
• What kinds of career options are available to you?

Each of these activities can help put things into proper perspective for you and help you make the best decisions at these important career-defining moments in your life.

What do you think is an optimal balance of emotion and logic in career decisions concerning organizational change in your future? Mark an X on the continuum where you think this balance should be for you:

1. Is this optimal balance different from your present approach to making career decisions?
   
   
2. Think of a time when you relied too heavily on emotion to make a key decision in your life. What was the result? If you had used more logic, how would it have affected the outcome?
   
   
3. Now think of a time when you relied too heavily on logic. What was the result? How would using more emotion have affected the outcome?
   
   
4. What can you do to help achieve optimum balance in making future decisions?

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve made a fight-or-flight decision, how do you take action and not spend your time worrying about the decision you’ve made? The next chapter provides the answer.