Business success is only possible if your people are ready, willing and able to embrace change. The success of the business, the success of its leaders and your personal success all hinge upon the ability of your people to not just cope with change – but to accept change, embrace change and look for the opportunities.
The ability to embrace change is the most important gift you can give your people – for the sake of their own personal well-being as well as the health and future business success of the company.
I would like to share with you the basis of the insights contained in my ‘Embracing Change’ workshops and webinars I run for organisations worldwide, and the ‘Embracing Change Online Programme’ which employees are able to access at their pace, whenever and wherever they wish.
Embrace change: 5 factors you need to understand
To accept and embrace change, your people will need to understand and acknowledge the five truths about change:
1. Change is inevitable
This may seem like a ‘Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious’ but so many of us fail to fully appreciate this simple yet profound fact. Change is not a one-off, nor is it a project. Change, good and bad, is an inevitable part of life.
2. All change is personal
Even the most extensive organisational change is actually the culmination of a myriad of individual, personal changes.
3. We all erect our own personal barriers to change
It is an evolutionary survival mechanism. Some of these barriers will last a few seconds, others may last a lifetime. But no matter how high or how solid your barriers may be, you can build the confidence to admit they exist and learn to overcome them and embrace change. No-one needs to remain a victim of change for long, even major change that is done to us.
4. All change is emotional
We experience a rollercoaster of emotions when confronted by significant change – even change that we instigate. The emotions can include shock, denial, anger, fear, anxiety and hopelessness before understanding and acceptance can begin to kick in.
These emotions are not only OK, they are completely normal, inevitable and healthy. Understanding this is a critical step forward.
During one ‘Embracing Change’ workshop for the employees of a major fund manager, one of the delegates was quietly wiping away tears during the first session. During the break, she explained that she hadn’t realised the range of emotions she was experiencing since the death of her father was completely normal. Her relief was palpable.
5. We only change if we want to
No-one changes simply because they are told to. We only embrace change if and when we want to. A taxi driver I met in Vegas explained to me that he used to be literally twice the size he was when I met him and was getting through 2 bottles of vodka and 4 litres of Coca Cola every day. One day, he woke up and threw away the booze and coke and had been drinking nothing but water ever since. He was 53. People had been telling him to change for decades. But he didn’t embrace change until he genuinely wanted to.
There are two key conclusions arising from these five key truths. The first one is that the core role of leadership today is helping your people to want to change before they can embrace change.
The second is that we can be our own leader of change. We can observe the emotions we feel during times of change, be kind to ourselves if we wallow in the trough of the change curve for a while before asking ourselves the magic question: “So, what am I going to do about it?”
For the power to embrace change lies within every single one of us.
