5 minute read
Facing Change
Change is happening at a breakneck pace. Are we keeping up?
By Scott Swinton, CCIP
Did you know that the fax first found traction in the 1860s? Yes, the fax – that marvel of technology that takes a printed page, stuffs it into a tiny phone line, and then magically prints it on another piece of paper as it is pushed out of a machine half a world away - first emerged in the 1800s. The technology slowly gained momentum until the 1930s when AT&T found viable commercial uses for the technology. In World War II the US military began investing heavily in faxes for transmitting maps and other images. By the 1980s the fax machine was ubiquitous in offices around the world.
And then there were none.
Like boy bands and dinosaurs, the only remnants of the fax machine today are curious artifacts. Back in the early 2000s, when I was just a kid learning the HOA reconstruction ropes, a wizened old manager sternly admonished me that email was far too unreliable. He would only send me work orders via fax. I thought him wise and invested in a fax machine.
Technological Marvels Become Relics
That manager has moved on, and the fax machine has moved aside. Email has become arguably the most reliable communication medium we use. Change, the only constant, is still plaguing the stalwart among us. If you remember the 1990s heyday of the fax machine, you might recall it was hard to imagine a more concrete mode of transmitting documents. Digital transmission just felt too squishy and unreliable.
What go-to technology is now about to become a relic? What standards are fossilizing before our eyes and against our will? What systems will no longer seem quite so clever or logical in just a couple of years?
And frankly, the more poignant question is how will you and I respond to those changes as they come? How will that person you are about to hire respond when you roll out a new corporate program? How will you respond to the feedback?
Accepting Change
Change is as inevitable as it is cliché. We change, we adapt, and then we do it again and again. Yet, each time we face change – it’s a new challenge to accept it. Each time we introduce new systems to team members, we tense in anticipation of the blowback. Each time you suggest changes to a supervisor…yep, the same tense anticipation.
The greatest social experiment, colloquially known as the 'HOA,' is one of great change and opportunity.
The CID industry is in transition like never before. There has never been so much demanded from owners and managers. Training new managers is getting harder. Life as a manager is more challenging. The insurance carrier just dropped your building, the decks were fine yesterday, but now, evidently, they’re dangerous, and oh yeah, the attorney just let you know that you’ve been misapplying CC&Rs for the last 30 years, and your homeowners are now personally responsible to repair, well …you fill in the blank.
There’s a lot of change in the industry, and not everyone is responding well. Some managers are packing up and moving on, leaving a mentorship vacuum. Homeowners are panicking and refusing to spend or raise money. The old familiar paths to repairs, insurance renewals, assessments, and certifications are getting treacherous with all the red tape and legal landmines. Tempers flare at unusually wellattended board meetings. Change is in the air, and sometimes it smells like the smoke from a dozen torches.
Responding to Change
How will you respond to the changes? Following are some tools I suggest for responding to change:
1. Stop saying, “I wish it weren’t so.” Living in the past is like walking backward. You’ll never see opportunity when it pops up, trample it flat when it does, then scoff at the wreckage as proof that there was never any hope of its success. Face the next treacherous board meeting with an eye to opportunity. Some very frustrated owners may just have the solution the community is looking for.
2. Keep learning! Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” Get credentials that count. Study the laws for yourself. Be an expert.
3. Don’t expect stability. Nick Tasler, in this article published on The Harvard Business Review on September 21, 2016, commented that “ In the late 1970s, a researcher at the University of Chicago named Salvatore Maddi began studying employees at Illinois Bell. Soon after, the phone industry was deregulated, and the company had to undergo a lot of changes. Some managers had trouble coping. Others thrived. What separated the two groups?
The adaptive leaders chose to view all changes, whether wanted or unwanted, as an expected part of the human experience rather than as a tragic anomaly that victimizes unlucky people. Instead of feeling personally attacked by ignorant leaders, evil lawmakers, or an unfair universe, they remained engaged in their work and spotted opportunities to fix longstanding problems…”
No matter how you face change, one thing is clear: you’re going to face change. This epoch of the greatest social experiment, colloquially known as the ‘HOA,’ is one of great change and opportunity.
Will you perceive changes as tragic anomalies that trip you up and frustrate your progress, or will you hit the books, face challenges with aplomb, and expect success? Your career may depend on your answer.
