When you talk about ‘Change Management’ or even an ‘Introduction of Change’, all you hear is positivity from people – atleast at face value. You will hear that ‘more can be achieved if this change is implemented’ or ‘accomplishments are on their way with this change’. Even though that they all admire the change you are about to introduce, there are extremely few who are actually going to accept it.
Lets accept it. In any aspect of our lives, change is difficult. And I mean ‘extremely difficult’. There are very few who are ready to accept the change even if they say they are. Most of us seem to be facing the tide but are unable to swim in the opposite direction.
The problem with embracing a change is that people usually consider it to be an easy process. Although, in reality change brings in a disruption in status-quo. And such disruptions initially do make us happy, but we are engulfed by the thought of losing what we had earlier. Hence several people move back to ‘sticking with what we have’ rather than moving ahead.
People who accept changes in life are different from the usual lot that we see around us. They thrive for a positive change in their lives, and we see the best results coming out of the change they adapted for, including personal growth, business increase, talent development and dynamism.
What compels people to embrace change and defy the obstacles? Opportunity. Great minds look for a great opportunity hidden in a change. A ‘glass half full’ approach brings in positivity in people’s mind that opens to look at the hidden opportunity in any change. When they clearly see and decipher what is hidden in that change, they put extra effort to capitalize the opportunity, facing the challenge to achieve it.
There are few important lessons one should keep in mind while embracing change, as these steps will lessen the obstacles in your way:
- Have fewer expectations: High expectations from family, friends, business decisions made, a merger, an acquisition etc result in an abrupt shock if the expectations aren’t fulfilled. You should have reasonable expectations, making it easy on you to accept it when it comes. This way, you are better able to manage things and will be far from disappointment, loss and pain.
- Acknowledgement and Acceptance: Refusal to believe that change has happened results in an extremely weird outcome. Learning to acknowledge change helps in accepting it because change is bound to happen. Embracing the situation at its right time will help you align further steps, chalk out strategies to work on it, and generate favourable results from it.
- Lessons Learnt: You cannot resist a change. Hence if it has happened beyond your control or expectations, it’s better to learn from it to avoid experiencing the same in future.
- Changing the perception: When you encounter a change, don’t sell it to yourself. Selling change to yourself is not sustainable for continuous growth of oneself as this would lead to deviation from the path of change. You will feel retaliation to this change the moment your mind starts to figure out that it’s been manipulated. Instead, change needs to be understood and managed in a way that people can cope effectively with it.
- Is this change needed? If you think that you need to make a change quickly, make sure that you are agreeing to the effects and the time frame you are assessing for the change to incur, and that you have done disaster management planning. Quick change prevents proper consultation and involvement, which leads to difficulties that take time to resolve.
Enjoy the experience. Be respectful and helpful to people and they’ll be respectful and helpful to you.
