Predicting Response to Change with Personas
Software developers, marketers, and manufacturers create personas to predict how customers will respond to products and services.
So why not use personas to predict and navigate employee response to change?
Personas can help organizations transcend the use of flat caricatures or job roles (e.g. Joe the Accountant), and instead provide deeper, more empathetic insight into why employees feel and act as they do in the face of transition.
To codify responses to change among accounting professionals specifically, BlackLine developed eight “change” personas. These were developed based on fictional responses to three questions:
The risk-oriented accountant doesn’t like change and prefers to maintain the status quo. Their motto is “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
The change-positive accountant is curious about and driven to discover new ways of doing things. Open to change, this type thinks that sticking with the status quo is the biggest risk.
Those with a pure accounting focus take joy in the details of the accounting function. They love accounting for its precision, its consistency, and its capacity to deliver insight. They are passionate about getting everything right, and to do so, ask “what” questions, like “What is happening?” and “What do I need to do to ensure even greater accuracy?”
Those with a business partnership focus are targeting the “why.” They identify connections and patterns and can visualize how processes move through and affect teams, departments, and the organization as a whole. Instead of “what,” this accountant needs to know “why.”
“Steady” types are more content with their current roles and thus less inclined to seek out new opportunities. While unlikely to make as dramatic an impact as those who are categorized as ambitious, the steady type plays a key role in lessening volatility and providing stability and discernment during change.
“Ambitious” types want more responsibility and are eager to try new roles, especially if those roles include leadership opportunities. This type is personally motivated to make an impact and thus instrumental in driving change forward. However, their tendency to make waves can result in both great rewards and greater risk.
It’s important to note that there is no right or “better” answer to these questions. Both champions of change and challengers play meaningful roles in successful change management.
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