Why Read This? This management white paper contains many of the keys necessary to better understand the evolutionary strength that we bring to today’s most difficult business challenges. Modern business publications do not effectively present the true nature of most 21^st century knowledge workers. Rather than unknowingly coddling “change-resistant” behaviors that may not even exist within your professional team – this white paper can teach you to reframe your staff’s understanding of transition and adaptation. It’s easy to convince your workers that they are natural born “change monsters” when all you have to do is tell them the truth. This paper can help you make it happen.

 

 

 

SHIFT HAPPENS

Fighting The Change Myth

 

Human Beings are masters of change. We are “change monsters” with a black belt in adaptation. As a species, we are both the crouching tiger and the hidden dragon of change. To borrow from an ‘80’s rock anthem … “We’ve seen a million changes and we’ve rocked them all.”

 

Contrary to conventional wisdom, we have not been set to explode when we hear the “c” word. But, in a master stroke of self-fulfilling prophecy, we have been convinced otherwise; spawning many “you need fixing” books, urgent training programs and case studies devoted to helping us, and our businesses, “manage change.” There is, however, a bit of a problem with this widely-held notion – it is a myth. One can no more “manage change” than catch the tiny particles of dust suspended in a stream of light. Change is many things, but manageable is not one of them.

 

Neanderthal To Networker

 

From the earliest tribal days of our ancestors, we have confronted and conquered change. Handling “language” and “fire” seems to rank somewhere up there with “developing e-mail” when marking mankind’s history. When we awoke in our caves, so long ago, we faced choices, changes and extreme challenges. As Hunter-Gatherers, we had to decide if it was a berry-picking day or one more suited for chucking spears at a saber-toothed tiger.

 

One could argue that the Neanderthal lived in a world without our degree of complexity. However, the qualities of success and the prize itself (Longevity) were not all that different; the taller guys, or those smart enough to climb trees, had the better view (Vision) of the hunting grounds. If they successfully fed the tribe they gained trust, became leaders and eventually got the most fertile female (Succession). Keeping the tribe together (Retention), passing on skills (Learning Organizations) and living to see another day (Profit/Cash Flow) was the lifework of the tribe’s Alpha Male (Owner). Sound familiar? It comes close to mirroring the mission statements and business plans of today’s organizations. Fortunately, the saber-toothed tiger has been replaced by the infinitely less deadly chicken nugget.

 

Fast forward an eon or two and you’ll find mankind online, networked, global, hyper-aware, multi-tasking and contemplating the colonization of other worlds. From hunter-gatherer to agrarian … from industrialist to the digital age, we have pushed on through massive change. This is our DNA imprint. This is our genetic heritage. When it comes to life on Earth, there is only one certainty – shift happens.

 

 

Does “Change” Really Rattle Us?

 

If you read today’s business journals, you will notice a triplet of repetitive themes that occur when the issues of “change” and “people” are discussed. We are, depending upon the author’s bias, either angry that change is happening, resentful that it might be happening to us or, worse, paralyzed by fear when change becomes inevitable. Does this sound like you? I think not. What has been demonstrated over and over again in most industries is a virtual “how-to-manual” on business dexterity. You have performed the same great work of which ancestral sons and daughters are capable. Simply put, you won’t generally find angry, resentful cowards among high-impact businesspeople. Don’t let your staff, or yourself, believe the hype.

 

Cutting Ourselves Some Slack

 

To be fair, as technology advances, it does tend to compress both time and energy (i.e. from huge steam engines to sterile microchips. During certain periods along the human timeline, great advances sometimes group together to create periods of powerful redefinition. These momentous periods touch the very fabric of who we are, what we can achieve and how we will retain our balance. This, right now, is one of those stressful, wonderful, brutal and amazing times. What we feel is the “strangeness” of the moment. It is unfair to shoe-horn our “awareness of uncertainty” into boxes which are disempowering. Ultimately, they become impediments to our natural inclination to engage change and move through it. Remember, what is strange today will be normal tomorrow.

 

Also, we are in what is often referred to as The Neutral Zone. This can be a confusing in-between state, when people are no longer who and where they were, but are not yet who and where they’re going to be. The great news is that, while The Neutral Zone can be distressing, it also provides many opportunities for creative transformations. Why do you think some businesses have seen jaw-dropping 1000% year-to-year revenue increases? They hit the sweet spot in this transformative time!

 

When Change Isn’t Change

 

The word “change” sounds like an “event”, as if it were a doorway one stepped through or a singular act that one performed (like rearranging your living room furniture) – when it is more precisely a river of transition upon which we float. All of us speak of the changes we face within our companies, our industry, even ourselves. However, the best change we can make is to view most things as simply “transitional.” When looking at varying wave-lengths of light and seeing the different colors they produce, you won’t find any clean lines marking the changes in color across the spectrum. This “fuzzy shift” is a common occurrence in the natural world. Evolution, adaptation, migration, extinction – even weather – are yet more examples of how truly universal and natural, transition is.

 

 

You might ask “aren’t we just dealing with semantics here … substituting the word “transition” for the word “change?”” It could appear that way, but it is much bigger than that. The concept of transition is much more clearly perceived as smooth and incremental. Transition is much more willful and self-directed. Change is something that happens to you. There is a degree of control in “transition” that feels missing from our preconceptions about “change.” If change is a boulder that you move in fits and starts, transition is a wire upon which you evenly glide. Don’t ever sell short the power of frameworks.

 

Humans Rock!

 

From cave drawings to computer-generated world of Shrek, we humans have actively made pioneering uniquely our own. We crave new experiences and the perspectives they elicit. One result of this visioning is the abandonment of more and more of the old mechanical models of business (e.g. “It runs like clockwork” … or … “like a well-oiled machine”), great scientists, sociologists and anthropologists are teaching us about the new biology of business. Their collective holding, that companies are more organism than organization, seems to be well proven by our successful shift to a talent-based economy. If that is indeed the case, then our most innately human self is not statically hard-wired. Rather, we are built for speed, built for rapid learning, built for elasticity and built for change.

 

The Art of Anticipation

 

Managing change is out, however, the great art of educated anticipation is alive within us all. Our objective is to be most ready for the most likely transitions or shifts. Reality check; we are not searching for the answers to life’s great mysteries here. Wizard hats and potions are not required. With just your brain, some good data and some visioning skills, you can brainstorm any transitional situation (i.e. the state of your finances, your staff, the industry, technology, etc.) and develop likely future scenarios. From there, you can begin focusing your efforts so that you are aligned, ready and waiting. Remember to make “transitioning time” a daily activity. It’s your most important role.

 

Seven The Hard Way

 

As a 21^st Century Leader who wants to take the self-defeating aspects of “change” off the table, here’s what you need to do and to communicate to those around you:

 

1. Don’t reinforce the idea that change is very difficult for people – if you allow this misconception to live on in your business, you are priming your team for failure.

 

2. Do challenge the change myth at every turn. Remind everyone of the heritage of their species and our unmatched ability to thrive through adaptation.

 

3. Prepare everyone to reframe their concept of change into one of “transitions” and “shifts.”

 

4. Make certain that all of your new associates know just how much successful shifting you’ve already accomplished within our industry. Now raise the bar even higher.

 

5. Don’t embrace change, embrace strangeness. As we’ve said, what is strange today will be normal tomorrow. Be ahead of the curve.

 

6. Transitional shifts are universal, natural and not clearly marked. Get good at seeing what’s coming and prepare. Get even better at seeing what’s leaving. Say goodbye quickly.

 

7. Your objective is to be most ready for the most likely transitions. Find your future and shift.

 

Fight the change myth. Adopt the framework of transition - it’s worth the trouble. Tomorrow is a wonderful place.

 

 

Traci Totino, PhD