Changes - Personal and professional

Every organization needs to change for its survival and keep its competitiveness. While change is not an easy procedure to complete, it can affect many lives both in positively and negatively. The change owners may take intentionally or unintentionally wrong decisions  which can impact the stakeholders. However, each individual should follow the same rules to come out of the change whether the individual it is affected positively or negatively. Only the emotions changes and that will be temporary phenomena.  

Each individual is going through the changes every day of his / her life  both in personal and professional life. Without change life is meaningless. One should compete to himself and do better next time when he faces a change. Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only. So, how do you pass through a change? There are multiple stages –

 Phase 1: The Announcement: Change will come in many ways – I will classify them into two broad categories though not completely complementary. They are PLANNED and UNPLANNED. Organizational changes are mostly planned ones, however there are situations we hit unplanned ones as well. All the incidents, like death of a near and dear one, is the best example for an unplanned change.  Depending  on the type of the change, it will trigger a verity of emotions – Happy, Sad, Disgust, Anger, Fear, Surprise etc. None of these feelings are bad or evil.  Categorizing these emotions in to positive or negative itself is not correct. They are just reaction to change that is happening currently. Apply your human wisdom to control your emotions and accept the change.  

Phase 2: Ending Phase: This is the second phase of the change where the impact of the announcement is over and recover from the emotions.  Now you know that the change is undoable and you must face it. In this phase, the most important action is to accept the change which is undergoing and level your emotions to the reality. This is applicable for both happy and frustrating impacted people. This is the time to end mourning about loses and stop rejoicing on your gains. Accept the change and move to the next phase.

 It is important that, you must experience the Ending phase and move to the next phase. Some of us are not come out of the emotions and tied to it for a long time. This prolonged phase -1 may harm the individuals and may lead them to both professional and personal challenges. If you feel that the ending phase is not happening, the emotions are still ruling you, time to consult an experienced therapist and seek help, before it destroy you. Much prolonged Phase-1 may lead to depression, revenge, crime and even suicide tendencies. The fast you have the ending phase, the better it will be. Remember one thing – that one announcement or an incident is not the end of the world!

Phase 2 – Transition plan: Every change challenges you with the new set of hurdles. This is a new beginning of a painful end. You must ask yourself “Where are you?”, “Where you want to be?” and “How do you get there?” to prepare the transition plans.  You may use a different template depends on the type of challenges you have to manage. It can be personal, profession or social. Apply you earlier experience and outcome of the ending phase thoughts will help you build a unbiased transition plan. I use the term “Unbiased” to mention the importance of having a transition plan to achieve your goals and not to hurt those who caused the change. They are the past and irrelevant for your future goals and objectives.  

Phase 4: BAU (Business As Usual): You are back on track and waiting for the next change and again go through the same process. Not every change can bring success and it can bring lot learning and that lead you to ultimate success. All the best!