We have heard for a long time that change is one inescapable development at work and life. The adage of change being the only constant has been tossed around for so long that it needs no reiteration. Despite the existence and acceptance of this fact; there is still a major chunk of the working population that feels as if change is the end of the road and the end of life itself. There are many out there who feel as if change is causing the greatest human tragedy ever. Even the sharpest minds can sometimes fail to anticipate what is in store.
Dealing with change is in the mind. This may appear too simplistic, but that is the fact. Change happens in organizations, but the mechanism for dealing with it lies in the mind. There is a simple sounding, but profound statement: “Perception is everything�. How true! To a vast extent, the gravity of a calamity (maybe this word is a misnomer in this context, because change doesn’t necessarily have to be such unless one thinks so) can be diluted by the right approach towards it.
How do the government agencies and the military face a disaster? By anticipating it and getting ready to handle it when it comes, right? That should be the approach to facing change. It is inevitable. So, it means that it is inescapable. By being prepared, a person wards off the severity of an impending change. Preparedness is more like insurance. When change does happen, this insurance helps to take the brunt off.
How does one get prepared, then? This depends on the person, the profession, the industry and a few related factors. For someone in the technology sector, it is about upgrading one’s professional profile and being able to enhance one’s options in the job market. For someone in the entertainment industry, it could be about shoring up resources and creating assets when money pours in like a torrent, something like the proverbial saving for a rainy day.
This helps them to create a parallel source of income, which, when utilized prudently, can help them stay afloat for a long time. For yet others, it is about being open to the changes happening in their industry and creating value for themselves in the organization or the industry. There exist many options for doing this. One needs to keep one’s eyes and ears open for the possibilities of insulating oneself from the negative repercussions of change.
The guiding principle or attitude to change is to not run away from it. Running away from a problem is not only the hallmark of the fainthearted; it also deprives a person of the opportunity to test himself in a crisis. This is what all challenges in life are, right? The more one gets ready to accept them; the more one learns to handle difficulties in life.
The result is that the person gets refined, wiser and more experienced from the events that happen. We have seen how in life, a misfortune can be devastating during the time it happens. But if one were to overcome it and look at it a few years down the line, it seems like a nonissue.
When one reflects at how well she handled the misfortune; looking back at it give a sense of satisfaction and triumph. The same applies to one’s professional life. When one has handled changed and seen it through; nothing is a greater confidence booster. All this points to the fact that change need be one of these: A disaster or an opportunity. It all depends on how one perceives it to be. The defeatist looks at it from the first perspective. The winner looks at it from the second.
For organizations, the best insurance against the changes that change brings about is to be competitive. The sensible belief to go by is that in order to succeed in business, you have to do what no one has done before. This entails having to keep learning and unlearning from time to time to handle any situation.
That is the key to enduring the starkness brought about by change. So, the organization has to keep building up its equity in the market by innovating constantly. This can only be brought about by being aware of what the market is going through and what it needs.
Good managers and organizations don’t wait for change to hit them and then prepare for ways of dealing with it. This is more of the firefighting approach. Insightful and farsighted managers and organizations foresee change before it happens and takes steps to correct the disturbances arising out of it. Yet others see an opportunity on the horizon faster than others and become the agents of change themselves. In this context, a popular saying in corporate circles is that one should change not because one has to, but because one wants to.
To a great extent, professional trainings can help. Professional trainings in these areas help organizations understand and overcome the fallouts of a change. NetZealous LLC, a Fremont, CA based provider of professional trainings in the regulatory compliance, human resources, healthcare and IT, is a valuable destination for professional trainings which help professionals and organizations learn to deal with change.
Its trainings through its human resources brand, TrainHR, are ideal for organizations and individuals alike in helping to understand everything about change. Experts from the industry, who have helped many organizations cope with change, are available on hand to offer professional trainings on this and related subjects. This experience, which has been of immense value to organizations, will be imparted at NetZealous LLC’s trainings. Getting trained from these professionals is a sure way of getting prepared for change.
More than anything else, NetZealous LLC’s experts help professionals and organizations become intuitive in adapting to change. There is often no formula for how to deal with change, because it can come about in any form and shape and at any time. Rather than offer courses that impart learnings purely from academic or textual sources; NetZealous LLC’s trainings help participants condition and train their minds towards sizing up change and adapting to the situation in the peculiar circumstances in which one is placed, making use of the available resources.
Instead of being instructive; NetZealous LLC’s professional trainings tune their participants towards ways of dealing with change when it happens. It goes by the age-old wisdom of teaching a person to fish to feed him for a lifetime rather than giving him a fish to eat whenever he is hungry.
As we have examined, change, while being inevitable, need not be something that brings doom into individuals or organizations. Anticipating, assessing the nature and gravity of change and adapting ways of dealing with it are largely in the hands of the individual or the organization, whichever of these is in the throes of change. The ways of foreseeing change and moving towards a set of predetermined consequences is the essence of change management. Organizations can approach change in a few systematic ways:
ď‚ž Change
management consists of voluntarily putting in place processes and measures by which the organization can transition to the desired level of outcomes
ď‚ž Change
management has to be well planned in its conception and execution. The decisions taken at the top needs to be instilled down the organizational hierarchy
ď‚ž Foresight
is of the essence, because managements that implement a change management program without this can fail miserably and take the organization down the path of descent ď‚ž The more organizations are reluctant to accept change, the greater will be the harshness of its impact.