After watching the 50 Reasons Not to Change
graphic I recognized almost every excuse that was provided because I have
either heard them from fellow coworkers, or I have said them myself. Before
starting the Leadership Program I was a very resistant person, specifically
when it came to changing my routine. I am a creature of habit and because of
this I have probably sold myself short on a lot of missed opportunities. I have
only two classes left in the program and I have since changed my outlook on how
I feel about change because I have discovered that I actually like it. I like
change and I know that it is the only thing that I can count on in my life. For
instance since I started working at ERAU in January of 2011 my workspace has
changed four times, and I was just informed we were going to be moving again.
With every move there is usually a reconfiguration to either provide other
departments with more room, or to combined departments together all in order to
remain successful at what we do.
When coworkers were made aware of the move
they all had something to add and most of them were complaints about having to
move again. Some of the complaints were listed in the video; such as “this
won’t work” and “I don’t think this is a good decision”. Regardless if any of
us think it’s a good idea it’s going to happen so I just tried to find
positives regarding the move. For example one positive is that we are going to
sit next to the person we provide coverage for when they are absent. Sitting
next to our partners will help us better communicate, and will also help
resolve some of the issues we encounter since most challenges are to be worked
out with our partners. Similar to our text I use “What’s in it for me?” “When a
change causes employees to feel pressured, they may interpret the change as a
loss of individual security. Affecting the comfort zone” (Brown, (2011) p 152).
By approaching this move by focusing on the positives rather then the fact we
were moving yet again, and changing workspaces is not easy will better help
ease us into the inevitable. Sometimes when I realize that I am resisting a
change I try to separate myself from the negative thoughts and just digest what
I know about the change. Once I can clearly understand what is going I can see
the reasoning as to why the change is being implemented so that I can logically
make sense of the matter.
Although I know I have become a better
adapter since becoming more self-aware throughout the Leadership Program I know
that I still make these same excuses from time to time. I am sure I do it
because I am just scared or I have been listening to what others have to say
instead of processing the information first. To overcome thinking like this I
have to change cognitively. I have to retrain the way I think about stuff. For
example I have a tendency to react to change adversely. Since beginning this
class I have dramatically improved. I suffer from an adjustment disorder so
when change happens in my life I feel like I am surrounded by chaos. Once I
begin to connect the dots and see a pattern or logic starts to make sense I
usually then adapt to whatever is changing.
When I first had my baby I was extremely
anxious. I had problems leaving my house because I didn’t want to be around
people. It was as if my new role as a mom made me not remember who I was and
what I liked before when I was just me. I was lost in my own thoughts and this
created a barrier. As time went on I began to argue a lot with family and
friends if they tried to make me leave my house. I was really starting to get
depressed. At this time I was returning to work from maternity leave while also
taking graduate classes so I never had a moment where I didn’t feel pressure.
Finally I snapped and I just begged for someone to help me get out in the world
again.
Since returning to some of the activities I
used to enjoy I have begun to come back to my old self. I realized a lot about
myself with this experience. Now that I am back at work changes are not as
scary as they used to be because of what I went through. Now I am on the
opposite end of the spectrum. If I listen to why a change is taking place and
it makes sense I am one of the tribal leaders Seth Godin talks about in his TED
talk. I am able to help others see that the benefits will outweigh the
challenges we will face going forward. Approaching these situations with an
optimistic attitude becomes contagious so that’s what I try to do.
Recently when our Department became off
balance because of the way we were divided up was no longer sufficient we were
advised we were going to switching from regions to alpha sections. At first I
feared for my life, but then I realized I was one of the counselors that were
unfairly overwhelmed because my region’s enrollment numbers exploded. During
the meeting my coworkers made their disapproval known. They bickered and said
many negative comments that our management could hear and this frustrated me
because I knew they had our best interests in mind. Instead of remaining quiet
I knew that as an equal to them I could assist the situation by shedding light
on the positives which could help shift them from resisting to accepting. I
spoke directly to the one who was disapproving the most and said you have the
largest region and you are going to benefit from this the most. I told her not
to fear the unknown because we were a team and we would help one another
through this process and that none of us knew what to expect, but the only
thing we could do is help each other through it. She was online counselor and
the idea of switching to handle campuses freaked her out. I continued to
support her through the whole process and since the change we couldn’t be
happier. She was very grateful for my support and let me know she was happy I
was able to help her see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Change
is happening that’s all people are guaranteed in life. Every day the worlds
evolving and so are the people living on it. No matter how hard we try to fight
change, it’s happening. Change happened while writing this BLOG. I became more
aware of how I actually overcame a huge obstacle in my life. I am able to
reflect on how this change made me stronger in every aspect of my life, but especially
when it came to handling change. As a leader in each tribe I am involved in
whether it be my work environment, as a mother, wife, friend and student it is
important to become a change leader for my fellow tribal members when they are
resisting change. We have to stick together because we can do more as a team
then we can alone.
References
Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential
approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Seth Godin: The tribes we lead | Video on
TED.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
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