As we enter a period of renewal and change, Your Clear Next Step is committed to helping our customers make their businesses and workdays even better. We will be here to walk beside you, to listen, to connect, and to aid in your search for clarity. In doing so, we are offering a free, daily Zoom call, called Daily Connections, at 1:15pm (CDT) every weekday from 3/19/2020-5/1/2020.
These calls are a chance for us to share tips and discussion about relevant topics (working remotely, maintaining consistency in uncertain times, building relationships across geography, staying motivated, staying connected, etc) and network with each other to provide help and support during this time of change.
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us today! The next call will be Friday, April 24th at 1:15pm (CDT). Click here to join.
On today's call...
Sinikka talked about what happens when the change you're experiencing wasn't the one you wanted.
I teach a lot of change management classes, and one of the key concepts we talk about that helps people move from “A” (current state) to “B” (future state) is knowing that B is better (check out our change infographic for a better visual) John Kotter the authority on leading change in an organizational context says that we have to make sure “B” is obviously and urgently better than A in order to get a group of people to let go of A and move towards B.
What if B is still unknown?
What if the “B” you can see is not as good as A was – or perhaps much much worse than A was?
- Allow yourself to cast a critical lens at what was. Not to say that it was all bad, but let’s not idealize it or romanticize it – it wasn’t perfect. This is your chance to actively work on solving one of those things that wasn’t ideal before and making it even better in the future
- Play a game of “I Spy Something Good” – what’s something good that can come out of this or that will come out of this
- Prioritize your own development – what are you learning from this?
As a person of Faith, I rely on Romans 8:28
Romans 8:28 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
28 We know that all things work together for good[a] for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is something greater ahead, and if it is not in this life on this earth, then it is in heaven
A few thoughts that were shared by the group:
- This was well timed for me today.
- I do think that B will be better, and a lot of times to help myself come to that conclusion, I will do a pros vs. cons comparison. I also remind myself that is B still isn't what I'm looking for when I get there, I can find another option
- A lot of it is just the way you think about it. Instead of thinking “this is B and i don’t like it” try thinking “I just haven't found B yet. I’m still in transition and I'm just not there yet.” When I've gone through transitions, it’s often taken me longer to be happy and satisfied with where I am than i would have expected.
- That’s a good reminder. Rarely, do we go from A to B in one simple step. I heard one time that it took 1 million course corrections to make the first moon landing. So maybe we aren’t to B yet, but we’ve left and we’re just making a course correction.
- My husband and I made a big cross country move back in October, and while professionally B has been great, B has been rough in a lot of other ways. So, these were really good reminders.
- Something good always comes out of something bad. At the time the bad is at it's worst, it doesn't seem like it but it always happens.
- B is kind of a moving target right now. We don’t really know what the future holds right now, but I'm trying to have a lot of hope in it. We probably aren't going to return to A, but we still don’t know what B looks like. So I'm trying to remind myself that I’ve adapted to my current B, and I can adapt again to whatever the future brings.
- I think one downfall of organizational change training is that it makes it sound like the future will be certain while we are in the midst of the change. While we might not be able to be certain of everything, we can be certain of some things, even if we don’t know exactly what it looks like.
- I might not know exactly when or where, but I know for certain I will enjoy more time outside this summer.
