Ch-ch-ch-changes

These days, it seems like change is everywhere. As the old sayings go, change is inevitable, change is the only constant, and the times they are a-changing.

There have been a number of exciting changes for me recently, both in my personal and professional life. In the last six months alone, I’ve got a new job role, moved to a new house and my husband and I are preparing for life with a new baby. Not to mention the changes happening in my department, Capp as a company and the assessment industry as a whole.

In the workplace, we are all regularly faced with complex changes. More than ever, our ability to respond to these changes is shaping our success as individuals, teams and organisations. But when everything’s changing around us, it can be difficult to know how best to respond. I’ve found a few things to be valuable to managing and celebrating the changes in my own life:

·       Authenticity - for me, authenticity is critical to success in almost everything I do. I’ve fallen into the trap before of trying to emulate others to replicate their success. I admire their ability to jump into changes head-first, and so try doing this myself. But when it comes to change, I’ve found it far more effective to be myself and to respond in my own way, being true to who I am. Personally, this means taking time to reflect on what’s going to change before it happens, and heading out for a run when I need time to process.

·       Energy - working in a Strengths-based organisation, I’m regularly reminded to focus on what energises me and think about how to maintain and increase energy levels of myself and my colleagues. Some people naturally love change, whereas others can find it more daunting and become drained by constant change. Finding ways to employ people’s true strengths - things that they enjoy, do well and do regularly - helps with this process. For me, adherence is a learned behaviour (I can do it, but it’s not something I enjoy) so I find process changes a challenge. My way to manage this is to focus on the context of these changes and to recognise the long-term benefits, as I love seeing the bigger picture. This helps keep my energy levels up and enables me to support others through these changes.

·       Collaboration - I’m fortunate to be surrounded by friends, family and colleagues who constantly support, encourage and challenge me to be the best I can be. We all know that it’s important to involve others to successfully embed changes, but I’ve also found being open and honest about these changes, and their effect on me, has been hugely valuable. More often than not, when I open up to others about how a change is affecting me, I find that there’s someone else in a similar position that I can share experiences and discuss solutions with.

What about you? How do you manage and champion change in your organisation?