The Rollercoaster of Change

Definition

The Rollercoaster of Change is a five-stage emotional arc — shock, denial, "hang in there," hope, rebuilding — that the book claims underlies every kind of change a person or organization goes through, regardless of the change's content. The stages are not optional or skippable: a leader has to move through them personally, managing their own reaction first, before they are credible or effective at guiding anyone else through the same arc.

In the Book

Chapter III introduces the model as a synthesis: "This one Model integrates and synthesizes over 20 other theories of change, all of which have this same Rollercoaster Foundation." Each stage gets a matching leadership response: Stage 1 (shock and denial) calls for advance notice and clear expectations; Stage 2 (depression and anger) requires listening, then empathizing, and only then explaining why the change is necessary — "this a, b, c order is key"; Stage 3 (hope and adjustment) means clarifying each person's new role and their WIIFM ("What's In It For Me"); Stage 4 (rebuilding) means empowering committed people and then stepping back to monitor. Tip #8 walks the model through a first-person internal monologue at the "Self" level — from "It's my boss's fault... it's them, not me!" (denial) through "I do have the ability to respond... it's within my power to respond positively or negatively" (hope) to "I am 'response-able' for my life's destiny" (rebuilding) — showing the same arc applies to a leader's own attitude, not only to organizational change.

Why It Matters

Naming the stages turns a confusing, demoralizing slide into anger or resistance into an expected, temporary phase of a known sequence rather than a sign that the change is failing or that people are being unreasonable. It also flips the usual leadership instinct to explain the rationale for a change immediately: the model insists listening and empathizing have to come first, because a person in shock or denial cannot absorb a rationale yet. Any change effort — technological, organizational, personal — can be diagnosed by asking which stage people are actually in, rather than which stage the plan assumes they should be in.