Change How You Change

In the past two years, your life has probably changed. Do you commute over the same route you did two years ago? Same transportation? Same job? Same company? Same industry? Do you live in the same home? With the same people? You probably answered "No" a few times. Change is all around, and you're probably pretty skilled at adapting to it. You can become even more skilled if you change how you change.

Organizations have discovered — actually they paid big bucks to be told — that if they educate employees about Change, the organization can change more effectively. But some organizational change training lacks sufficient emphasis on improving personal change skills. Here are some tips to help you improve your personal change skills.

Accept the letting go

To change, you must let go of something. It might be something you want to let go of, or it might not. Letting go is like crossing a rushing stream on steppingstones. To get to the next stone, you must step off the one you're on. To become skilled at change, you must accept the letting go.

Feel the tug pulling you back

That next steppingstone will be unfamiliar — you must learn which parts of it are dry and which parts are comfortable. And you'll wonder where to go next. All this can be unsettling, and you might want to give up and go back. When you feel that tug pulling you back, recognize it as a natural effect of change. Resist the tug — choose your direction consciously.

Focus on the good

Organizational change
requires personal change.
They're inseparable.

If you're the change architect, you probably hope that everything will be better after the transition. On the other hand, if the change is forced on you by events, you probably fear that everything will be less bearable afterwards. Recognize that for every change, some things will be better, some things the same, and some things more difficult. No change is all bad or all good. Focus on the good.

Learn the new way

When you start doing things in a new way, you won't be very good at it. Judging the success of a change on the basis of early performance is often a rationalization for going back. Stick with it until you've learned, and until you can tell how well it works.

The next time you try to change something, practice these skills with intention. Expect difficulty, because you'll be changing two things at once: not only whatever you're trying to change, but also the way you approach change. The only time you can practice changing how you change is when you're changing something else.  Top    Next Issue

Is your organization embroiled in Change? Are you managing a change effort that faces rampant cynicism, passive non-cooperation, or maybe even outright revolt? Read 101 Tips for Managing Change to learn how to survive, how to plan and how to execute change efforts to inspire real, passionate support. Order Now!

For more on the Satir Change Model, see "Now We're in Chaos," Point Lookout for September 19, 2001, and "Piling Change Upon Change: Management Credibility," Point Lookout for October 18, 2006.

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Related articles

More articles on Organizational Change:

Don't Rebuild the Chrysler Building

When we undertake change, we're usually surprised at the effort and cost required. Much of this effort and cost is necessary because of the nature of the processes we're changing. What can we do differently to make change easier in the future?

Letting Go of the Status Quo: the Debate

Before we can change, we must want to change, or at least accept that we must change. And somewhere in there, we must let go of some part of what is now in place — the status quo. In organizations, the decision to let go involves debate.

Kinds of Organizational Authority: the Formal

A clear understanding of Power, Authority, and Influence depends on familiarity with the kinds of authority found in organizations. Here's Part I of a little catalog of authority classes.

When Change Is Hard: II

When organizational change is difficult, we sometimes blame poor leadership or "resistance." But even when we believe we have good leadership and the most cooperative populations, we can still encounter trouble. Why is change so hard so often?

What Keeps Things the Way They Are

Changing processes can be challenging. Sometimes the difficulty arises from our tendency to overlook other processes that work to keep things the way they are. If we begin by changing those "regulator processes" the difficulty can sometimes vanish.

See also Organizational Change and Organizational Change for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming January 29: A Framework for Safe Storming

The Storming stage of Tuckman's development sequence for small groups is when the group explores its frustrations and degrees of disagreement about both structure and task. Only by understanding these misalignments is reaching alignment possible. Here is a framework for this exploration. Available here and by RSS on January 29.

And on February 5: On Shaking Things Up

Newcomers to work groups have three tasks: to meet and get to know incumbent group members; to gain their trust; and to learn about the group's task and how to contribute to accomplishing it. General skills are necessary, but specifics are most important. Available here and by RSS on February 5.

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