Getting Comfortable With Change
Did your January 1st start out with a vow to change something? As I write this, it is nearing the end of June. How has change worked for you? Are you comfortable with change?
Habits and Traditions
Most of our life is spent getting comfortable. It seems we are always working to improve our skill and to replicate what worked well and call it a habit. It might be the way that we do things and those things might become known as traditions.
Yet, for most of us, we also recognize that if we want different results we have to do things differently. Even then, we sometimes can’t just do things differently, we must consider how to do different things. This is change.
When our concept of progress is to become so highly skilled that we feel comfortable, everything else is uncomfortable. Change is often hard, it is different, not the same. Change might take all that we know and all that we’ve done and turn it upside down and inside out.
Business leaders want to improve the product, find new revenue streams, or completely change the company. Their opposition might not be the competition but more about the habits and traditions they’ve worked so hard to perfect. It is a paradox.
Comfortable with Change
Perhaps mastering change is to learn a new skill, the skill of becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable.
The emergency room at the local hospital never knows what to expect. They plan for the unplanned and adapt as things change. Certainly, they might not always change their policies, procedures, or medicine, but they also don’t know what will happen next.
Technology, shifts in socio-economic conditions, and the values and beliefs of consumers will all have an impact on what happens next.
It seems that the best way to get comfortable with change is to expect it.
You’re going to have to give something up though. A habit, a tradition, or the way you’ve always done it. It will mean learning something different and developing a new skill.
Get comfortable with that too.
– DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
