As we are often reminded—change is the only constant! Change brings out the need to know our being, as well as our doing. An organization’s greatest investment is in its employees. Employees are human beings who do the heart of the work. The first customer is the company’s employee and the second customer is the external customer.
As we are often reminded—change is the only constant! Change brings out the need to know our being, as well as our doing. An organization’s greatest investment is in its employees. Employees are human beings who do the heart of the work. The first customer is the company’s employee and the second customer is the external customer.
There are many changes, issues, situations, and opportunities that present themselves every day, and they impact the way we do business. When we recognize some of the following issues, we can identify our role in moving our organizations forward.
1. Understanding how change really impacts us
The human experience consists of matching our capabilities against the challenges we are faced. A sense of balance, or status quo, is maintained in our lives when our capabilities equal the challenge before us.
2. Change and control
At the heart of understanding how people react to change is the issue of control. Humans have evolved into being the most control-oriented animals on the planet. People are most comfortable when they can influence what happens to them.
3. Fear of losing control
People will often choose to stay in negative situations that are familiar and thus more predictable rather than face the ambiguity generated when they are confronted with the unknown.
4. Defining the speed of change
Each of us travel through life at a unique pace that allows us to assimilate the major changes we face. This is referred to as our speed of change. People who demonstrate exceptionally high performance during periods of major change are usually operating near their optimum speed of change, and when they are functioning at their optimum speed of change, they are absorbing significant disruption with minimal dysfunction.
5. Resilience
Resilience, the ability to absorb high levels of disruptive change while displaying minimal dysfunctional behavior, is the single most important factor necessary to increase an individual’s or organization’s speed of change.
How we succeed in a changing workplace can be influenced by our paradigms. Our personal paradigms have a powerful impact on how we feel, think, behave, approach a situation, and succeed in a changing workplace. What are “your” paradigms about tomorrow, the future, and your feelings about change? What are the barriers that exist today that prevent us from succeeding in a changing workplace and how do we overcome them?