I have a distinct inability to
understand the word no sometimes. There is a joke for those in my personal life
that know that telling me no is like inviting me with a yes. I hear: this is a
challenge. Challenge accepted. I have been told I am terribly stubborn
sometimes. I was warned when I was younger not to hurt myself with my
stubbornness. I have been told in casual passing that “it” cannot be done and
all that means to me is that I am going try it until I do it. Not one to
completely rock the boat and make waves, after all I do not enjoy being
antagonistic, but once I am locked in on a goal I go to my own little corner
working the trial and error until I get the hang of it. Sometimes it is just a
jar. Sometimes it is the principle of the matter. Perhaps this quality makes
for an effective change agent?
As equally as I love conquering
difficult things, I am also ruled by fear and no one prefers change less than I
do. My early life was turned upside down in so many drastic ways that the
shellshock of not being able to cling to my security blanket of safety unnerves
me. Maybe I was too stubborn to change and still managed to remain in my preserved
childlike state of wonder balanced by one part mischief. Regardless, “No” is an
incomplete idea that really translates to “No-t yet.” I do not get upset when I
hear others make excuses not to change. Everyone is on their own journey and
not everyone will be ready or be on the same page at the same time. There are
pioneers, early adopters, the bandwagon crowd, stragglers the indie folks and
those who flat out, out right resist. There are probably a lot of other people
in between, but I don’t have a name for them. I know that I can float between
those identities so I get that sometimes people just have excuses to change. Instead
of being upset, I use this as a secret, selfish opportunity to work on
innovating ideas while no one is watching. There is much less pressure that
way. If an idea is realized and it is good enough, I think people will follow. If
you build it, they will come. That is what I heard anyway. Apple said that,
right? Ah, I make jokes.
There are fifty reasons not to
change, after all, but I would get greatly worn out from typing them all, so
the following are some popular old standbys:
“Why change-it’s working ok”
“We have been doing it this way
for 25 years”
“It’s impossible”
“We’re not ready”
“I don’t like it”
“Our competitors are not doing it”
“[Insert name/title/department] will not like
it”
For the follow up…
-It is working, but for how long?
Can it be better? More fun? Faster? Easier?
-In the words of Jimmy Fallon:
Ew! (This is the worst to me.) You are not using the same toothbrush from 25
years ago, right? If the practice is not useful and is just shrouded in ritual,
it is time to renew.
-The word impossible is merely dressed
up in disguise. It literally says “I’m possible”.
-In the tune of The Temptations: Get
ready, because here I come!
-I dub thee Sam I Am, try it and
like it.
-Perfect. You may pass go and
collect $200. I am not saying Monopoly, but I am not not saying it, either.
-Let’s go ask and find out. If
this is true, they can also be Sam I Am. Please try it and like it.
I suppose you could call them
reasons for not changing, but it is just a euphemism for excuses not to change.
Those responses are a bit idealistic, but it is a shift from the negative and
embraces a carefree stance toward stop signs. I could have been the poster
child for the resistance of change. Even if I do not say them out loud, I still
say them to myself and the things that I think are far worse than what I hear
from people that I have worked with and are not veiled without personalization.
I am afraid, I doubt myself, Can I even do it? What if I am not good at
it? It is too much. This gives me anxiety. I hate change!
It is mighty odd to say, but I
have been fortunate to learn about change. What do you do when everything
changes? When you lose so much and do not want to let go? Part of my own battle
that I walk everyday is that since I was quite young the things that you expect
to be around just cannot be anymore. I can make an extensive inventory of all
the things that have changed to dwell on and wallow about. I acknowledge them because
I remember where I come from and how I have become who I am, but I will not be
broken by change. It is far better to turn misfortune into strength and insight
than be poisoned by opposition to change.
When I was little my parents
died, this will shape a phobia of change like nothing else can. My childhood
home is now an overgrown lot. My gymnastics studio that was my sanctuary is
also a parking lot full of weeds. My high school is, too. Pets, friends, baby
pictures all lost in time, gone. Some of things you expect and some you do not.
I found a quote credited to Lena
Horne that said “It’s not the load that breaks you, it’s the way you carry it.”
Sometimes overcoming a change is as simple as changing the way you think about
it. I could have given in to these heavy burdens, just holed up and quit on
everything merely existing day to day, but excuses are self-imposed roadblocks.
I did not want to hold myself back. If you can learn to carry the big stuff,
you can learn to leap over the smaller stuff. This is not to say I am not affected
by my past. I certainly know how to have a knee-jerk reaction to upheaval with
the best of them.
Brown (2011) lists restraining
forces that block change, listing fear of the unknown and threat to security as
major factors. I commiserate whole heartedly. I love a good comfort zone. But I
feel like being thrown into dramatic change early on gave me a secret window
into the pattern of life. It changes… a lot. The quicker you can learn
adaptation the easier any transition will be when change does come, and it will
come. It does not matter if you say no to change. It will happen anyway. The
only thing you control is if you move forward or get left behind. Changes will
happen all around us, to our environment and the people who surround us
regardless of our protest or our desires. Some of my favorite imagery is things
forgotten or left behind in time and overtaken by nature. I think this speaks
to the power of change. Relentless forces are at work ad familiar comforts can
easily disappear. Instead of a permanent vice grip on the past, I found taking
time to be in the moment with the things you cherish most and doing so with an
appreciation and knowledge of the precious fragility can help prepare you for
the time to let go and move on. This goes for all things, both personal and
organizational. Humans are creatures of comfort so this could be a breakdown
over a favorite type of clicky pen (guilty!), a computer program you know
inside and out, or a beloved colleague. It may even be in the form of
department restructuring and office changes.
This is happening in my office
currently. I love our Financial Aid Department, but without notice to the rest
of the floor, they were moved to the floor below. I know it is just one floor,
but it is still unsettling. Our department has been restructured and Centralized
Scheduling is no longer with us and may be moved soon. Concurrently we acquired
another department into ours that I cannot even recall their acronym, IDD, I
believe. We have not met them and it has been a month or two now. We are
constantly changing at work so I will enjoy what I have day to day and get
prepared for whatever new adventure that presents itself.
I think change is scary, but you
don’t have to face it alone. My work team tries to keep up with each other as
we try new practices to see if we can get better results. We are constantly
sharing and adjusting as we build on each other’s ideas. One of these trends
lately is mail merge. When I was training I thought that I would never learn
it. It is not required, but a helpful tool to have. I found out that the other
team members were also reluctant because the mechanics were never used and
forgotten. We were encouraged to retrain in this recently and received
individual tutoring from our team leader. Some of the team has taken to it,
others not so much. The most reluctant team member sits next to me and has
slowly brought down the barriers to mail merge as I have been pulling out my
hand written instructions and learning to conquer it. I think I get so excited
when I successfully accomplish it that it bubbles over to her cubie, infecting
all that it touches. Today, this very day, she made up her mind on her own that
she was ready to try it and asked me to come help her. Sometimes together is
better and I did not mind, I was proud to help.
If you cannot think it through alone, having
support, someone to talk to, and someone who will be opened-minded with you can
make the difference. In my opinion, this relates very well with Brown (2011)
that there are strategies to increase motivation to change. I believe that
supporting each other can create a climate conducive to change. I also feel
much better about change if I am told clearly and precisely what to expect and
why the change has been brought about. A clearly articulated vision and
effective communications can lessen resistant attitudes while one faces change
(Brown, 2011).
It is no secret that I adore TED
videos and blog about them often. Another interesting point of view comes
courtesy of Seth Godin in his TED talk titled “The Tribes we Lead”. He
articulates that we try to change everything. We find something that bothers us
or that needs to be improved and we change it. There have been several ways during
recent times that change was approached, but the evolution of it is not
necessarily a big media campaign constantly in our faces anymore but through
tribes.
Essentially tribes means leading
others and connecting people through ideas created and then spread to likeminded
others. It is kind of like a chain effect that one person reaches those around
them, those people do the same until a movement has been launched. This reminds
me of the recent ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I think it would have been much less
successful if it was all over the TV and radio as a general call to action. But
being singled out by someone you actually know is really influential. Chances
are you were picked because you were already close, trusted each other, and had
the same ideas or perspectives. I think finding a way back to personalization
in a time when you can connect distantly to anyone, strangers, is likely the
next modern way to drive change.
My only hesitation to this idea
is that while referrals and word of mouth are not new ideas, I wonder if tribes
are as wholesome of a concept as it presents itself. What I mean by this is, it
is easy to align when you have the same values. What happens when multiple
change movements spring up but there is a conflict between the tribes? There
are enough reasons for people not to see eye to eye and labeling your tribes
and beliefs and encompassing only the population that feels the same may turn
counterproductive. I understand that not everyone will feel the same about the multitudes
of change ideas out there. I just hope that this does not lead to a harmful
division between us. An idea about this that I am floating around is PETA
versus those that hunt animals. There are radical extremes on both sides that
sometimes cross the line to provoke each other. I love the idea of influencing
those through the creation and spreading of any idea, but only if it can remain
peaceful and more unifying instead of alienating.
References:
Brown, D. R. (2011). An
experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Boston: Prentice
Hall.
Seth Godin: The tribes we lead |
Video on TED.com. (2009, February 1). TED: Ideas worth spreading. Retrieved
September 15, 2014, from http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
No comments:
Post a Comment