 Client Question: “There are some big organizational changes happening at my work soon. I am not good at handling change. I dread it and don’t even want to go through it. How can I get past this?”
Managing the change process for yourself or your team is never easy. Everyone processes the change at a different pace. For the people who have never been through this type of change, it creates fear and anxiety for them. Others who have been through it a few times know what is coming. Although it may make it a bit easier, they still struggle with the change. Those who have been through change consistently over time, may struggle initially, but they go through the change process much more rapidly because they have been through it so many times.
A big change like this can be compared to going through the stages of grief. You like things the way they are and you don’t want them to change. You may go through a range of emotions as you try to understand what the change means for you personally and how the change will impact the organization. You are trying to integrate in your mind what this will mean to the work you do and how it will be different. This isn’t easy at first, but as you learn more information, it becomes easier to envision what things will look like.
I would bet if you look back over your career, you have successfully gone through change many times. Think back on those times and how you managed the change then. What did you do to help yourself get through it? Did you feel anxiety at the beginning and then start to feel better about it as you learned more information? Did you discuss with others on the team to better understand the change? How did you learn information that helped you understand the impacts?
There is a famous quote that says “change is a constant.” In order to grow and stay competitive, companies need to go through change. You can’t stop the change from happening, but you do have a choice in how you manage the change in the best way for you.
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