How to Learn to Live with Change
About the Authors:
NEIL FLANAGAN and JARVIS FINGER
World-renowned business strategists and authors of several international best-selling books on management. Neil is a sought-after keynote, conference and motivational speaker and Jarvis is the award-winning founder and editor of Australia's best known magazine for school administrators.
As a manager, you are in a position to influence others. Take change, for example. The way you personally relate to change and cope with it will have a lasting impact on your employees. But before you can help others, you must be able to help yourself. When they see how effectively you cope with change, your staff, too, will see change for what it really is—an opportunity to lead a much fuller and productive life. Here’s what you must do to survive in an age of ongoing change…
1. Accept that you must look to the future
It’s futile trying to cling to the past—or the present, for that matter. Their passing is inevitable. By trying to hold on to the past, you impair your ability to relate effectively to what is new and coming. And so you begin to feel anxious, fear the unknown, display ignorance, or desperately seek attachments. Moving forward is not a matter of giving up what you have, it’s a matter of being free from what you have. By your behaviour, employees will see that moving forward is usually the only viable option.
2. See change as opportunity
All changes, even those you’d rather not have, contain the seeds of opportunity. Those opportunities can be ideas, relationships, points of view and new career directions. You'll see difficulties and obstacles until you absorb their wisdom and gather from them the essentials for further growth. Change is the price we must pay for growth, improvement, achievement and, finally, satisfaction and happiness. The way you grasp opportunities from change will help to inspire others to do the same.
Management Memo
Periods of change are periods of opportunity for both you and your members of staff. Change, if you let it, gives you the excuse to examine your life. It is a time of high risk and high reward. Without it we could never grow or learn. If you can learn to use it to your advantage, you will have an asset to your upward mobility. If you are properly prepared, it can also be great fun.
Mary & Eric Allison
Managing Up, Managing Down
3. Develop a coping strategy for yourself
You must be able to help yourself before you can hope to help others cope with change. Consider the following coping mechanisms. They may help you live through the next major change in your organisation.
Don't rush the change cycle. Be aware of the four phases through which you (and your staff) will pass, to varying degrees, in coping with sudden change:
Denial—the announcement is greeted with shock, and a refusal to accept that it's happening. Resistance—acceptance is accompanied by personal distress, blame and complaining, even illness.
Exploration—after a period of struggle, you emerge from your negativity and move into a more positive, future-focused phase, attempting to find the 'best way' of coping.
Commitment—having weathered the storm and accepted the situation, you now focus on the new and pour your energies into it.
Think it through. Isolate yourself in a relaxed environment and jot down answers to such questions as these:
• What changes and repercussions can I expect?
• How reliable are my sources of information?
• Can I find better sources?
• What's the best thing that could happen as a result of the anticipated change?
• What's the worst?
• What tasks will be added to or removed from my current responsibilities?
• How will the changes affect my staff?
Come to terms with yourself. Now is the time to consider your future. Decide what you will be doing - staying, transferring, retraining, retiring, resigning. Your decision need not be permanent but, unless you are at peace with yourself, you'll enter the change process stressed and uncertain.
Shine in a time of uncertainty. A period of high change can be very good for your career. During this uncertain time, if you do your job very well, you will shine while others around you fall apart at the seams. So, plan ahead, organise yourself, set up new systems to cope with the changes, and motivate your staff to shine with you.
Talk it over with your family and friends. If the anticipated changes will mean extra work, stress, and anxiety for you, make sure your family members understand. They will feel more secure and better able to help you through a difficult time.
Take care of yourself to reduce stress. Acknowledge that change can be stressful. Eat right, organise regular physical activity, take vitamin supplements, find a few spare minutes to relax each day, and do the things you enjoy and which boost your energy.
Remember your staff members. What are the ramifications of the change for your employees? What information do you need, what do they need and what must you do to help them cope with the changes?
Stay organised. Draw up contingency plans for everything you can think of. Allow time for anticipated problems, for the unexpected will happen—although it will be easier to handle if you are well prepared.
4. Accept that nothing is permanent
Your career (and life) is dynamic and fluid. How you cope with the dynamic process will not only affect your growth but also your ability as a manager to influence others. You need to demonstrate to yourself and others that you understand and accept why things must change. When there is no permanence, stay-put behaviour serves no purpose. Giving up a lifetime of judgmental behaviour, negative thinking, aggressive self-protection, or ego-driven striving isn’t easy but, in one sense, it is inevitable if you are going to mature and grow. Your transition will be slow, incremental even. But that will give others a chance to observe how you live with change and allow them to learn from you.
By Neil Flanagan and Jarvis Finger
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