Get Good at Change: Things To Do (and un-do)

Regardless of what business you are in, in today’s economic whirlwind, if you aren’t good at change and adapting, you are probably having a tougher time than those people who are.

It’s time to get good at change. Here are some beginning steps:

1.    Make a declaration. Say what you are committed to accomplishing. Don’t wait for your fears, concerns to subside. Be willing to step up, whatever that means for you. Make your commitment publicly; tell your staff. If you are a solo-preneur, tell a buddy. Find allies; invite others to join you with their declaration, tell the naysayers to keep their conversation of no possibility to themselves.

2.    Understand the inner workings of our resistance to change. We don’t like it, and we don’t want to get over not liking it. The Heath brothers, in their terrifically readable book, Switch, deliver on the book’s subtitle: how to change things when change is hard. With plenty of examples, they show how the combination of our Rider (logic), our Elephant (emotions) and the Path (way to goals) impact our ability to change. Clear business examples and steps to making change make this a must read. If you buy it and don’t like it, I’ll buy your copy from you. Seriously. (Read the first chapter of Switch, http://www.heathbrothers.com/switch/chapterone.php).

3.    Get clear what is a fact and what is an interpretation. Clue: there are way fewer facts (“the truth is”) and way more interpretations at play. Continue generating the interpretations that empower you to be responsible and in action. Set aside the ones that have you spinning your wheels.  Want help sorting these out? Call me.

4.    Think locally, Act locally. Change what you can; don’t focus on what you can’t impact or influence (e.g., the oil spill in the Gulf). Stop reading emails that aren’t business-critical during business hours. Stop having hour-long staff meetings just because “that’s the way we do it here.” Make the short and focused. Start behaviors that take care of yourself and your people, the life blood of business. Send them home to rest and decompress.

The scramble to do whatever it takes to keep our businesses going through this downturn can not only blind us to taking effective action now, it can decrease our capacity to take effective action in the future when the economy turns around.  Stop the scamble. Stop the madness. Building your capacity to authentically adapt will serve you regardless of the circumstances or economic swings.