Companies should learn how to Grieve

In general, the past is not of interest to profit-oriented organizations. What's past is in the books, perhaps it becomes part of a comparison with previous years – but is in itself: checked off. With corporations, the focus is always on the future: the next customer, the next deal, the next quarterly or annual figures. Such is the logic of management. However, this does not necessarily apply to the people who work in these organizations. 

For people, the past is always part of the present – and sometimes, of the future. Companies can literally write off a failed project or a misguided investment. In principle, this is also true for humans, but the process is much more time-consuming and less straightforward.

When people want to come to terms with something important they had to let go, they need time to grieve. Grief is about detaching, processing and, if successful, also about re-integration. In case we have "successfully" bemouned someone (or something), this entitity is not gone. Rather, it accompanies us on another level: somewhat removed and therefore no longer directly tangible, but perhaps shining in a new light. 

Grieving as a Competence?

Most corporations, however, do not understand the value of this process. They "pull the plug" on projects, they "bury systems", sometimes entire parts of a company are "terminated". The expectation is usually that the workforce will just "move on". If this is not the case, this is regularly interpreted as "resistance" in the change management lore. If one really wants to interpret this motion as resistance, it should be noted that the resistance is usually not directed against "the new" per se. 

Instead, we should assume the majority of employees will readily understand the "good reasons" given by management as to why "the new" will be better, more beautiful, and more efficient than "the old". However, grieving is not a rational process, but an emotional one. Grief is non-linear and can only be predicted to a limited extent. Above all, it takes time.

Well-managed companies develop a kind of "grief competence" over time. They gain an understanding of the choreography of change processes, they learn that "it" sometimes has to go fast, that one should sometimes push the envelope – and that, on the other hand, people also need phases of reflection and assimilation. The mind can live well with spending a good part of the time in the future. Emotions need the present – and sometimes also the past.

The Graveyard of Good Taste

First-class companies consciously help their employees (and also customers) to say goodbye to cherished products, systems, or parts of the organization, for example by holding rites of passage – or by providing special places where the past is symbolically kept alive and thus, appreciated. The ice-cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's offers a wonderful example. At the company's headquarters, there is a graveyard for ice-cream varieties that were taken off the market or never got ready for the market (there is also a website).

There seems to be a Japanese saying that goes:

When you're in a hurry, go slowly. When you're in a real hurry, take a detour.

In this sense, I conjecture companies would oftentime be able to manage transformation processes faster and more successfully if they allowed their employees to slow down now and then, and also take detours: especially detours of grief.