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    • Reducing the Burden of Change for Line Managers 

    Change affects line managers putting under tremendous pressure. They are caught in the middle of several battles: 

    1. Balancing day to day work whilst trying to implement multiple changes 
    2. Constant pressure from senior leaders to deliver results whilst being called into so many meetings they do not have time think and plan how to make improvements 
    3. Supporting their team members, providing help and guidance to get their work done, whilst having no time to do their own work 

    On top of this, they are expected to plan change activities, allocate this additional work to team members, motivate everyone to want to change which adds to their stress. 

    It is no surprise that many line managers are facing burn out, and junior colleagues have decided that they do not want to take on the responsibilities for managing others. 

    Challenges Faced and How We Can Reduce the Burden of Change for Line Managers

    I believe those of us who have made change our career need to support these managers and find ways to reduce the burden of change for line managers, team leaders and supervisors. For every activity on our Change Plans, we must find a way to make the tasks as easy, quick and intuitive as possible, ensuring that they overcome these pain points common to so many people leadership roles: 

    1. Role Confusion and Conflicting Expectations 

    Managers are unclear about their role as “accidental change agents” while expected to deliver operational performance. 

    Change activities: 

    • Provide simple lists of “who does what” to minimise confusion 
    • Help managers define their own success criteria for their role in change 
    • Use these criteria for a regular check-up on how things are going  

    2. Overwhelming Change Volume 

    Too many changes happening simultaneously with everything labelled as “top priority.” 

    Change activities: 

    • Put any information about one change into a wider context, explaining how it connects to other changes 
    • Help managers create prioritisation criteria so they can regularly sort the essential from the “nice to have” 

    3. Ongoing state of uncertainty   

    Managers and their team members are worried about what will change next, which makes everything feel temporary and unstable.  

    Change activities: 

    • Clearly label all communications with “this is what we know” and “these are the areas we are still investigating” 
    • Have an easy to understand list of activities, and clearly show if the priority has increased or decreased week to week 

    4. Communication Challenges 

    Managers are expected to explain changes to their team when they do not have all the information, and they are not sure what the impacts are. 

    Change activities: 

    • Don’t just sent out messages to managers to cascade to their team. Give them a chance to ask questions and rehearse what they are going to say with you 
    • Help them develop stories that describe the “before and after” using real customer information, actual transactions etc that their team will recognise 

    5. Team Motivation and Performance Issues 

    Team members spread themselves too thin, trying to do their jobs and take part in changes to create new ways of working. 

    Change activities: 

    • Run short brainstorming activities during team meetings to help team members identify what they are going to contribute to the change 
    • Ensure tasks identified in these sessions are allocated to team members and the start and end dates are agreed with everyone 

    6. Lack of time to think strategically  

    Managers do not have time for reflection as they are constantly reacting to demands and fire-fighting problems. 

    Change activities: 

    • Build in “bigger picture” thinking to each briefing you have with managers 
    • Contribute the wider organisational and strategic context from senior managers so they can see how the change aligns to the direction and ambitions of their organisation 
    • Frame the additional burden of the change activities as career development, pointing out that ability to lead change is a core executive leadership skill 

    7. Inadequate training and support 

    Managers lack change leadership skills and have no space to voice doubts or seek help. I strongly believe that all managers should undertake change management training as there is more change taking place in organisations than ever before.

    Change activities: 

    • Demonstrate how you would do something, define checklists of steps to take and provide guidelines so you coach at every opportunity 
    • View every change activity as a “teachable moment”  

    Invest in Agile Change Coach Course for Line Managers

    To help your line managers to focus on change and reduce the burden we know they are feeling, invest in our Agile Change Coach Course.

    The Agile Change Coach course contains 43 practical techniques that you can use to coach team leaders and their teams in managing their changes. The contents of the course have been designed to “cascade” the skills to every level of leadership.  

    You can study this course online at a time that suits you. You benefit from developing proficiency in all these techniques, along with an understanding of the neuroscience and positive psychology that they are based on. You can then select techniques when you are coaching others, running workshops or want to change your meetings from information exchanges to opportunities to find solutions and get things done.  

    Don’t just take my word for it, the survey from APMG International captures the feedback from those who have taken the course: 

    • Gave me the confidence to try out new approaches to managing change   
    • I feel I have been given the tools and insights on how best to help people transition 
    • It was simple, logical and meaningful.