Break Some Windows of Opportunity

I'm at that age where those younger than me reach out more often for ‘wisdom’ than entertainment. Whether I am culturally relevant or not, I do know a bit about change, especially since I’ve helped transform the proverbial block a few times. There will continue to be volumes written about transformation and the most ideal ways to go about it, and my experience likely doesn't add much to the canon. That said, I haven't seen this level of rapid change no matter where I look, although some clear trends are starting to show.?

You can imagine the fear I hear in the voices of the folks asking me questions like, “is this actually going to happen? Can I trust this information? Why is this necessary?” Skepticism is high, and for good reason - it's all way too damn much to keep up with. There's constant information, and yet not early enough, about everything. People and projects are shifting quickly, and new innovations and disruptions keep popping up like a rigged game of whack-a-mole. It's bloody exhausting. So, our natural instinct is to fear all of this, along with fear’s fun loving cousins, fight, flight, freeze and fawn.??

Fighting the change is our classic fear response, or as described in change management circles, “resistance”. We may fight if we think we can win, or are invested enough in the status quo to make a case for staying put. Traditions may matter a lot.?For those who flee, the transformation isn't something that we feel we can or want to fight for. It's simply our best option to go elsewhere. Some of us are frozen - unable to move forward, or anywhere. Living day to day in survival mode is our reality. Those of us who fawn often give far too much for the effort, risking burnout and exhaustion to avoid failure. Sometimes we are a combination of these in varying degrees. Here's the thing - it's all pretty normal stuff. Not easy, but also not unexpected.?

So, if fear is unexpected, how do we move past it? Fear isn't something to shun or suppress. That leads to wishful thinking and wilful blindness. It's an invitation to explore something important. The trick is to think about our fears as risks. After all, fear serves a vital role in our survival, flagging potential threats. But if we approach these risks with a growth mindset, we start to think about how to overcome them - which leads to opportunity. Innovation doesn't come from a vacuum; it comes from solving a problem or finding a way to manage constraints. It's really not fear we need to avoid, but adopting courage to seize the moment.?

In any major change, we grieve the losses first. It can be hard to see the way forward until we have let go of the things that mattered to us. Courage allows us the space to find that path, including the unexpected opportunities that emerge. Courage is also what we require to seize that window before it closes, despite having conditions less than ideal. It also takes courage to break through the glass perception of possibility - and not just look through wistfully.