How Do We Adapt to Change?

In today’s corporate change, job security is a thing of the past. While we must face the fact that change is inevitable, we should also realize that many changes are positive and benefit both the individual and the company.



“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”—Jimmy Dean

There are four stages a person goes through when confronted with change. Depending
on how major the change is, you can spend minutes, hours, weeks -- even months -- in any one stage. The four stages are:

1. Denial (a "business as usual" attitude)
2. Resistance (increased stress accompanied by decreased productivity)
3. Exploration (the beginning of acceptance)
4. Commitment (moving forward)

DENIAL: Don't get stuck in it




The first stage is the stage of denial. The change doesn't sink in. In fact, you may not see anything significantly different about how you are going about your life. You continue to have the "business as usual" attitude, but slowly, productivity starts to decrease.

Let's say that you have been using the same word processing software for three years. Your company makes the decision to change software packages. At first you think, "Surely they can't mean this!" And you continue to use the old software, even though the new software is loaded and ready to go. After all, you are fast on the current software, so it makes sense to keep using it, even though you know that software will be unavailable at the end of the month. You figure you'll deal with that when the time comes.

That's a perfect picture of someone in denial. Now, at the end of the month, there is havoc because all of your files are stored on the old software, and the classes you took happened so many weeks ago that you have forgotten all of the pertinent information. Well, you can see where this is headed ... nowhere.

The denial stage is a natural part of being able to successfully deal with change but we cannot allow ourselves to get stuck there.

RESISTANCE: Expressing your anxiety



Stage two is the resistance stage. Here, people start to feel self-doubt, anger, depression, anxiety, frustration, fear, and lots of uncertainty. In this stage, productivity dips dramatically. Remember the software example? Well, now you are without the familiar software to rely upon, and you have to use this new software -- and it's frustrating! You can see how stress levels can skyrocket and productivity can nosedive.

Depending on how major the change is in the organization, this will be the stage where people will be desperately thinking about changing jobs. This phase is prolonged if people are not able to express their frustration and negative feelings. One company that was overhauling the entire computer system gave each employee a computer "whopper" -- a phone bat that they could use safely to vent their feelings about the new computer. What a great idea! It added the important element of humor.

Interestingly, companies where people are in the resistance stage and not allowed to express those feelings experience an increase in work-related accidents and missed days due to sickness. It's important to be able to express your frustration and disappointments.

EXPLORATION: Begin to accept




The third stage is the exploration stage. In this stage, you begin to accept the change and explore ways to make it work for you. Typically during this time, energy is released as people start to be creative and invent ways to move on to the future. This can be a stressful stage as you try one technique only to have it fail, but the focus has switched to a determination on your part to make it work. There are lots of activities in this stage, and productivity begins to increase again.

COMMITMENT: Light at the end of the tunnel



The last stage is the commit to change stage. You find the ideas and techniques that work and begin to move forward with these. In our software example, it's when you begin to like and use the features of the new software. In fact, you can't imagine switching back to the older one. Don't be fooled into thinking that everything is now going to work smoothly, because a new change is just around the corner. But the next time you feel yourself stuck in a situation where you are resisting the change, remember that you are going through a normal process. Allow yourself to constructively vent the negative feelings you are having about the change.

Perhaps you need to formally end the old before you can begin the new. Find a way to say goodbye to the old so that you can welcome the new.



By Zig Ziglar
Contributed by Cheq Navarro