Professional Development: How To Train Yourself To Thrive Through Change

Everyone seems intent on taking a positive view on becoming involved in change within our businesses and in our own lives. Wherever you look somebody or something is advocating for change. Today the catch cry seems to be change or perish. Michelle Gibbings http://www.smartcompany.com.au shows us how to make the conversion easier in her article suggesting we should train ourselves and thrive through change. Michelle is a change and leadership expert, founder of Change Meridian and author of Step Up:How To Build Your Influence At Work. Michelle, “There’s a famous saying, may you live in interesting times. While many people debate the sayings origin, there’s certainly no doubt it applies today. Change is everywhere particularly as we live in a VUCA world. Volatiles, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.”

Change in teams, organisations, communities and the environment takes place amidst a stream of other changes. Think volatile because everything is connected and rapidly changing. Think uncertain because the change is often unpredictable. Think complex as there is a multiplicity of stakeholders, customers and suppliers. Think ambiguous as there is lots of information and ideas but a lack of clarity as to how it will play out.

Michelle, “There are connections, dependencies and impacts many of which are known and many of which are unknown. This is why it’s critical to build the skills and techniques to to make change work for you. If you are unprepared you are less to be able to adapt and thrive. And statistics show that businesses that can’t adapt eventually go bankrupt or shut down. Successful change requires you to be purposeful positive and planned.”

Purpose Is About Intent

Michelle talks about how your end goals needs to be clear taking into account the changing landscape will impede or enhance your ability to achieve that goal. Michelle,” To do this you need to assess what is driving the change and what it means for your organisation. Having that data makes it easier to understand what alignment or realignment is necessary to deliver your strategic objectives. It’s easy to create options and ideas but not all of them will be worth pursuing.” 

Positive Is About Mindset

Further about mindset. When working through any situation you will need resilience and optimism when facing challenges and setbacks. With change comes challenge and how you approach it will impact on your ability to overcome it. Michelle,” Finding ways to break the challenges down into smaller pieces, being clear on the progress you are making and celebrating that progress all help in this regard.”

Planned Is About Action

As people grow older they often become more reluctant to try new things and do    them differently. They get stuck in a pattern of behaviour, which becomes harder to shift. Michelle, “If you want to thrive through change you need to push yourself and your brain outside its comfort zone. Each time you learn something new you are challenging your brain. Learning is good for you, so think about what learning you may need to do. Be proactive and take action.”

We can all do with a little help along the way especially when change is on the agenda. Michelle Gibbings in her article shows us how to thrive when we adopt change and makes it easy for us by showing us how to train for the processes. Surrounded by obstacles in our way, change for some is not an option. Unless you commit to the change processes and understand that in doing so, you are pushing against the grain you will be left behind wondering how your glorious past disappeared.

We must become purposeful, positive and planned to successfully translate. In other words we should prepare ourselves for the transition which will not come naturally. We must train ourselves to succeed. Goal setting is the foundation of this process. Your goals must be clearly defined and a process to establish that your goals have been achieved, implemented. In other words less talk and more physical and mental involvement. Take the view that learning new habits is good for you. Your brain will be set alight when you call upon it to help you transform.

If you want to be seen as modern, clever, skillful and incisive and be a leader in this new economy then be happy to adopt a relaxed approach so that your creative juices can flow. You will then open the door for change and happily move with the push for finding new ways to do things more efficiently. Be an agent for change and thrive.

Hayley James.