There’s an old tongue-twister that goes like this:
Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.
I can’t imagine what the people in the path of Hurricane Helene are experiencing or, as I write this, what havoc the rapidly-spinning-up Hurricane Milton will wreak.
This is change on a monumental scale.
Sadly, it demonstrates all too clearly how people on the outskirts of the change, people observing the change, will find ways to resist the change, creating untruthful stories – a.k.a. rumors – about what’s happening that have no bearing in reality. Even if they’re not personally impacted.
And sadly, right now people who ought to know better are perpetuating untruths about the hurricanes – including people who have “journalist” in their LinkedIn headline, but are relying on “what [their] peeps said,” and I quote.
Why am I saying this? Because as leaders of change, we must realize that rumors will happen. The change you’re working to implement in your organization is obviously not even remotely on the scale of a hurricane; this is an extreme example. But it’s an example that proves the generalization that change of any magnitude can feel remarkably threatening. Rumors take hold because people want to feel some sense of control – and some sense of “justifiable” outrage about what’s not in their control.
That “journalist”? She seems to have blocked me after I commented with a FEMA site link debunking what she was saying. Which is why I put “journalist” in quotes, of course, but it’s also a telling point about how people react when you tell them their rumors are unfounded.
Emotional reactions will not be changed by facts. I didn’t post the FEMA link in order to change her mind; I posted it for other readers who might not have already bought in to the rumors.
And this is why I teach the tools of change leadership, including the essential nature of open, two-way conversations (versus top-down “communi-telling”). There are ways to understand these emotional, rumor-based reactions and work with them to help people feel less anxious and more confident about what’s happening.
Will these tools change the minds of people like that LinkedIn poster? Probably not. But I tell the LinkedIn story to illustrate just how rumors can get out of hand, and how we, as leaders and as regular citizens, need to be careful about where we get our information, and what we choose to believe.
When people are struggling and suffering – whether on a hurricane-level scale or on a small, organizational scale – we all need to be responsible for what information we share, and how we care for the people in our communities.
As another LinkedIn connection often says – be a good human.
Curious about those tools of change leadership? Drop me a note through my contact form and we’ll set a time to talk. It’s truly not hard to avoid the people-problems that derail change initiatives.