How do you respond to change?
When the pandemic hit us and we were ordered to lock down, what kinds of things went through your mind?
Since we’ve been under these constraints for almost 5 months, what has changed about the way you think about change?
If you’re like most people, we respond to change in a relatively predictable way. You probably greeted that first jarring news of the NBA season cancellation with a little disbelief. That’s a form of resistance and it’s based on fear. We all have a fear of unknown changes. Some wear it a little better than others.
If you want to make a change at work, you can expect the same kind of reaction. Lots of people blame resistance to change for failed initiatives, but they fail because of leadership.
Just like we had daily briefings about the pandemic, where our officials were trying to let everyone know as much as possible to help manage the fear, the way you, as a leader, communicate will either help bring people into a place of acceptance more smoothly, or turn everyone off.
As we saw with our government briefings at the beginning of the pandemic, if you say things that make things LESS clear, or if there are conflicting messages from different leaders, people are left to do whatever they decide to do, which may be nothing, or it may be something that causes your initiative to fail.
Since this is a complex topic, I’m finishing up an on-demand, Short, On-Line Learning Experience on Navigating Change. It’ll be available later this week for $19. I would make it free, but my workload is way down and my bills aren’t! REGISTER HERE!
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