Are you ready for a change?

It is a fact that, if we want to create any improvement in the quality of our results, as an individual or as an organization, we must be willing to start and to navigate a process of change.

Change is everywhere. There is no such a thing as immobility. Everything is in perpetual change, at a different speed, but everything changes; even things that seem solid like buildings or the desk you’re maybe sitting at, right now. It is deteriorating at a very slow pace. You can look at the Acropolis in Greece, to understand what I mean. The building you’re in, requires periodic maintenance to avoid change being apparent.

Same thing happens with humans and personal development. Some people use to say that “they like things the way they are” (I hear that from time to time when I share the fact that I am a coach, and that I help people successfully implement the changes they want to see in their lives). Every time I hear that answer I smile and I explain to the person that, unfortunately, this is just an illusion. If you are not going forward, you are going backwards. Things don’t “stay as they are”. The only way to live our life happily and in a fulfilled way, is going forward, toward the goals and the vision we have for our life.

There are two types of change: cyclical and structural. The cyclical change is predictable, obeys to certain regularity and happens in stages that follow one to another, like seasons. With cyclical change, the best strategy is to anticipate and follow the seasons. If for some reason you struggle with a change of season in a specific moment, the worst-case strategy of “hiding and waiting for the season to change again” may work, with the condition that you can survive for the duration of that season you missed.

Structural change is different. It happens when a step forward is taken in a specific environment, with no return to the previous situation in the future. It’s not cyclical but linear. There is no way to escape a structural change situation. If an individual or an organization doesn’t adapt to such a change, they will be “out of business” without exception. It’s just a matter of time. We see it very clearly in technology related situations and markets. You know structural change is happening when the cyclical changes you knew for a while is all messed-up.

Unfortunately, most of us are not correctly equipped to deal with the process of change, due to a lack of understanding. We have been educated to believe that it is the conditions and circumstances outside of us that must change, in order for our results to improve. And therefore, we have a tendency to “wait until it’s the right time/place” or “until the market changes”. Let me tell you that, such things, will never arrive. The right time, place or market conditions are the ones you create for you to be successful.

It is your thinking that will determine your results, and therefore your level of success. Earl Nightingale said “We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret.” We don’t become what the time, or the place, or the market conditions are… unless we let them dictate our thoughts.

So, what we believe we are capable of, our self-worth, our self-esteem, is what really defines what we can achieve in our personal and professional lives. Most of us have gone through an education system that teach us what to think, but not how to think.

When I work the subject of change with my clients, other concepts come on the scene. Concepts like leadership, vision, strategy, planning, which are important and involve the work with their organization. But, as individuals, how do we deal with change, and how do we make it happen?

Do we suffer the changes that are put into us by the external conditions, like market, economy, people around us?

Do we properly manage to navigate those phases of change?

Or are we at the origin of the change, creating new paradigms, new external conditions that will create change for others, by creating innovation in our field?

How we deal with change at personal level defines the results we will get. Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” So, whenever I work on creating and managing change with my clients, for themselves and their organizations, we work on how they and the people on their organization deal with change at personal level.

Often times I get told “this is going to be difficult, people in my organization are reluctant to change”. While I agree with the first part of the sentence, I don’t agree with the second part. As my friend and mentor Paul Martinelli says, “People don’t resist change… they resist to be changed”. Therefore, the difficulty I agree with, is in learning how to work the right way: when change is designed, communicated and executed with others and not to others, in order for the organization to successfully implement and navigate the changing phase.

So, let me ask you this: How do you deal with change at a personal level? Do you manage to onboard people with you, so they help you create the change instead of resisting it? What are the structural changes happening right now in your field, for you and your organization? How are you dealing with them? I would love to read your comments below.

Have an intentional day. Grow. Reach your goals. Have an impact. Make a difference.

To your success,

Ezequiel