Change can be uncomfortable for all of us. It’s perfectly normal to experience a variety of feelings even if you’re the one driving the change, or supporting the change.

The change curve is a model that many people identify with, some if not all of the stages. Even those committed to change, as a steady state, sometimes feel momentary DENIAL.

There are lots of variations of the Change Curve, the most notable is the Kubler Ross Curve that is specifically used for grief.  Here is a version that can be used for a wider number of applications:

The Coaching Change Curve ©2011 Reflections Coaching:

Shock

The first stage of the Reflections Coaching Change Curve is Shock.  This is likely to occur the first time you find out about the change.  Have you ever heard that voice in your head saying “I can’t believe it” or “this really isn’t happening to me”.  Yet there you are.  Right in the middle of it all and you’re facing change.

This shock can be as simple as the culture shock we sometimes feel when going on holiday.  Just simply slowing down our bodies and relaxing away from the pressures of day to day living makes us feel out of kilter.

From a personal point of view I recall vividly standing in a room full of my colleagues and being told that my job and my two team colleagues were being transferred 50 miles away.  At the time it felt as though my world was ending.  Here was the career I’d been in for 22 years and I was suddenly going to have to travel for 3 hours a day or have no job!  I was filled with horror and uncertainty and I felt as though my freedom was being taken away.