ASHLEY NICHOLS
VANCOUVER ISLAND – In today’s fast-paced world, businesses need to adapt quickly and efficiently to stay competitive. It’s not just about keeping up with the latest technology, trends, or products; it’s also about how ready and open people are to embrace change. Building a strong, resilient team is more crucial than ever. Here are some tips to help you create a team that welcomes change:
Create a Safe Team Environment – Trust is the foundation of strong teams. Taking the time to build relationships with team members supports an environment where people feel safe to express their perspective and feelings. Create spaces for teams to connect and acknowledge emotions during times of change. Normalize failure as a learning opportunity and part of trying new things.
Cultivate a Growth Mindset – Encourage your team to continuously learn and grow their skills every day. This not only supports ongoing changes at work but also helps shift perspectives to see learning as a lifelong adventure. As a leader, you can support this mindset shift by modeling and recognizing learning.
Communicate Transparently and Frequently – Communicating openly and often about changes helps reduce anxiety and allows team members to process upcoming changes. Providing updates, even when there is nothing new to report, ensures employees feel valued and involved and allows you to identify and address any resistance early.
Develop Change Competency – Provide training to help your team manage change and recognize their personal responses to it. By creating self-awareness and offering coping tools to handle stress and emotions, you can help individuals build resilience and readiness.
Engage Employees – The best way to get buy-in for change initiatives is to involve people. When employees participate in the change, whether they share their input or con
tribute to work, they take more ownership and become champions for the initiative.
Building a change-resilient team takes time and intention to foster trust, adaptability and a growth mindset. Putting in the work will create a team that is equipped to navigate change with confidence and agility.
Ashley Nichols, BA, CPHR, is Manager, Human Resources, at Coastal Community Credit Union.
