Change Management – Can YOU make the change you have to?

Change – A reality for all

Here is a cliché that visits all of our lives with increasing frequency – ‘the only constant is change’. For some of us the visits are more frequent than others. We know that accepting, adapting and ultimately mastering this new ‘constant’ is the key to continual success. Whether it is the movement from single to married, married but no kids to life with children, individual contributor role at work to being responsible for a team to being responsible for the bottom line, working in the city of birth to working in a different country, adapting to a different boss, understanding the new process at work……it is there everywhere and all the time.

In these days, unlike the past, we also have mentors at work, change management programmes, transition coaches and realms of literature to sensitise us to the requirements. Yet, when it finally comes down to it, how many of us are really able to make the cut, on a sustained basis? Some of the most common refrains for failed marriages are, ‘we could not make the adjustments required’, ‘he just refused to change’ or ‘things were not the same any longer’. Some of the most common refrains for failed professional relationships are also ‘he did not adapt to the new requirements of the role’, ‘she was too old school’, ‘I did not like the way things had changed at the workplace’ and so on.

What it takes to succeed

Change is a process. There are many different models to explain the personal journey human beings travel when facing up to a change. Here is a model that I find useful in explaining the process:

Through my interactions as coach and facilitator I have some observations on why some people are more successful than others at dealing with change at certain times. It is critical to add this caveat as there is a difference between adapting to change well all the time and sometimes. More on that later in this post. Here are some of my observations:

1.Shortening the Change Acceptance Cycle

Those who move quickly to a phase of ACCEPTING that the change is already upon them and therefore now look to deal with it rather than DENY it. You will find them enthusiastically embracing the new process at work, welcoming the new boss, eager to try the new thing. They spend time trying to figure out the new and what it means to them rather than dwelling on the old. We often refer to them as ‘change agents’ because they carry with them the enthusiasm to positively affect the thinking of others towards change.

Commonalities that I have observed in this group are curiosity, eagerness to learn, early adoption of gadgets and a risqué relationship with compliance.

2. Recognizing that YOU have to Change

Those who recognize that THEY have to change and it is not the environment or others who have to change manage the change process better. This sounds simple but is generally very difficult. It is another form of DENIAL. Think about it from the context of your own lives – how many spouses wait for the other to make the adjustments, how often you want the city folks to change the way they behave (when you move into a new city), how you want your new team members to understand you and make the right moves by you and so on.

This trait is also referred to as ‘initiative’ in a change process.

3. Tuned to change

I had spoken earlier about how some people are good at dealing with change at certain times and some others more consistently.

For both sets it begins with first understanding what change means – that implies that the person has moved out of the DENIAL phase. Sometimes, change moves us into situations that are our comfort zones and then we embrace it happily. Most often though, change takes us outside our comfort zones.

It is my hypothesis that those who have had to deal with a lot of moving around cities, schools, houses in their formative years, find the whole notion of change to be a comfort zone. Children of army personnel, bureaucrats, railway officials and others in transferable jobs have had to deal with new homes, making new friends, getting used to new teachers, different weather and a whole host of other things. They are not fazed by having to adapt to something new. In fact, many of them get bored if left to do the same thing, for a few years.

4.  Not wearing your ‘area of development ‘ as a badge

So you have been told over many appraisals and feedback sessions that you are not assertive enough. You have great domain expertise and are very pleasant so people like you and you have been promoted fairly regularly. You are now responsible for a team of 8 Direct reports and 30 Indirects. Your President tells you ’Smita, you have to be more assertive to be effective.’ You smile and say, ’I have always been told that. What to do!’

Sounds familiar? It could have read ‘I know I lose my cool but what to do!’ or ‘I know I should not micro manage but what to do!’

In areas of leadership development and transitioning, I have found this to be the biggest block to change. It is an internal belief that “this does not need to actually change” or “I simply cannot change it, this is too much me”. Worse still, “this is what makes me and I am quite proud of it.”

There is good news for everybody who believes they simply cannot change some behaviour – unless it is coded in your DNA or a result of a chemical imbalance, you can change. For starters, stop wearing it as a badge and think of it as an ugly sore on your face. You will be surprised how quickly you can remove it.