Systemic Change Management—Making the Emotional Side of Change Visible | Tom Molenaar

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Tom Molenaar: Systemic Change Management—Making the Emotional Side of Change Visible

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

"We tend to skip the phase where we just give the person the space to grieve, to not know, instead of that, we tend to move to solutions maybe too quick."

Tom faces a significant challenge as he prepares to start with new teams transitioning between value streams in a SAFe environment. The teams will experience multiple changes simultaneously - new physical locations, new team dependencies, and organizational restructuring. Tom applies systemic change management principles, outlining five critical phases: sense of urgency, letting go, not knowing, creation, and new beginning. He emphasizes the importance of making the emotional "understream" visible, giving teams space to grieve their losses, and helping them verbalize their feelings before moving toward solutions.

In this episode, we refer to Systemic Change Management, an approach that views organizations as complex, interconnected systems—rather than collections of independent parts. Instead of focusing only on individual skills, isolated processes, or top-down directives, SCM works with the whole system (people, structures, culture, and external environment) to create sustainable transformation.

Self-reflection Question: How comfortable are you with sitting in uncertainty and allowing teams to process change without immediately jumping to solutions?

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About Tom Molenaar Tom is a team coach with a background in social psychology and behavioral influence. He is passionate about fostering collaboration, and helping teams flourish and achieve their potential. His approach blends insight, empathy, and strategy to cultivate lasting team success.

You can link with Tom Molenaar on LinkedIn.