Change (Aughh!)
We’re struggling as a society. I see it, feel it and people are talking about it. How do we move forward now?
“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, during a Geneva news briefing. But with the COVID-19 pandemic possibly becoming endemic, how do we move on from here?
In a guest issue of Image Matters News (“The Times They are a-Changin’”), featured writer Paul Knudstrup shared information about the process of change. In Paul’s work he indicated that when the pain of the present is greater than the uncertainty of the future AND when a new behavior or opportunity is sufficiently attractive, then change can occur. Before those two conditions are met, lasting change is highly unlikely.
While we might feel that the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t quite so out of our control these days, it’s generated significant change in the world. So we have to change and adjust to living in the “new normal” of our times. We all must move forward.
Moving Forward in Changing Times
For example, at a recent conference, Michelle Richards, founder and executive director of the Great Lakes Women’s Business Council, gave an opening address: “Leading Out of Crisis.” Her opening remarks included the point that leading out of this crisis is different. A move to collaborative leadership is key.
Collaborative team leadership is a management practice that aims to bring managers, executives and staff out of silos to work together. In collaborative workplaces, information is shared organically and everyone takes responsibility for the whole. Richards concluded with these points:
- • Leaders are depleted now and need to refill themselves.
- • Change your thinking by questioning what you thought you knew.
- • Realize that we’re in a marathon, not a sprint. Protect your own well-being in an ongoing process.
- • Be kind, empathetic and supportive of one another.
To accomplish this change in management practice, and other changes you might be involved with, let’s look again at what Knudstrup discussed in “The Times They are a-Changin.’” He noted that it’s helpful to understand that effectively dealing with change is a process. You can work through the challenge of change by understanding that process:
- • Before Change
- • Considering a Change
- • Preparing for Change
- • Active Change-Making
- • Reinforcing the New
If COVID-19 doesn’t generate another major variant and trends continue to look positive, some of us might be at the tipping point of preparing for change. Others might already be moving beyond that into active change-making (i.e., identifying and implementing their new normal).
Wherever you are in the change process, it’s often two steps forward and one step back. Change isn’t a linear process, and it can be very hard to do. Do you have a strategy/plan in place?
Ready to Overcome the Impact
In a time of significant transformation in work and life, there are questions to explore as you begin to make changes that support you and new behaviors. Some of these include:
- • What do you need to unlearn? What habits or beliefs are getting in the way of your ability to change and grow?
- • What behaviors in others (or yourself!) are negative or getting in the way of your career and life? What are you willing to do to create change that will remove those behaviors?
- • What, specifically, do you need to stop telling yourself? To activate successful change, your internal self-talk needs to be filled with positive messages.
- • What do you need to start telling yourself? Be careful. Specific thoughts ultimately form your habits and beliefs.
- • What positive things do you need to say to yourself every day even if you don’t really believe them yet?
Lasting change requires patience and persistence. Behind all change is a shift in mindset, growing self-awareness and learning how to think differently. Whatever changes in belief or behavior you want to make in your search for the new normal, they start in your head.
