Managing fear and change in social third sector organisations

When fear is placed at the centre of the life of a group, an organisation, a society, it seems to colour its reality. All people place their focus on it, extending it to all dimensions of what is happening. Fear becomes the centre of interpretation and, depending on how and by whom it is defined, determines the type of individual and collective responses.

In an organisation, fear that is not addressed and managed ultimately undermines the foundations that sustain it. Assuming that it is an individual reaction that occurs in a collective context, addressing and managing it consciously and explicitly requires at least identifying the duration of the fear experience and analysing whether it is based on something real, existing and objectifiable, or whether it has been constructed without being sufficiently grounded in something that is happening in the organisation.

We propose to tackle this issue by starting with a general framework approach that includes two proposals or approaches, to continue with specific situations (strategic reflections, operational decisions, changes in positions, changes in people, employment decisions, hiring, dismissals, relocations, project modifications, changes in roles, changes in people of reference... so many things...) that are really experienced in organisations. Situations that generate fear.