Strategies for Dealing with Change

People don’t hate change. It’s the lost that comes with the change that they hate. This could be a productivity loss, a social loss, a monetary loss, or maybe a physical loss, for example. Change is always happening, and there are many changes that happen that don’t impact you negatively, but because you don’t have any drama around the loss, you don’t really notice or?register the change. So, when you look back, you only remember those that you did react to.

And, since the only ones you remember are the ones you reacted to, you kind of draw that conclusion that you hate change.

My goal for this article is to make you more proficient at dealing with change in your life, whether at work or at home. If you can come up with a great strategy for managing change, it will reduce the stress you feel about it, which may help you realize that you don’t really hate change.

What’s Your Change Reaction?

When your manager or some other leader in the organization announces a change, how do you react?

If you are like most people, the first thing you will think of is ‘how does this impact me?’ If you are able to quickly assess that the change either doesn’t impact you, or minimally impacts you, you will likely think ‘ok’ and move on with your day.

If it has a direct impact on you, you are more likely to be a little nervous or more hesitant about the change until you can get more information about it.

What’s important is that you recognize your reaction.

The reason I say this is because I see a lot of people who have a strong reaction to a change, but they don’t recognize that they do. This is an indication that they aren’t consciously processing the change. They are really reacting to it more out of a force of habit than anything.

An Example

We recently had an announcement come out about an org change. Someone new was being put in charge of the organization that sells licenses for our software. I don’t have any responsibility for this area of our business, and I don’t know the people who were impacted because I don’t work with them directly.

My reaction to the change was ‘ok’ and I moved on with my day.

However, the people on that team that sells licenses just got a new boss. Their reaction could be much stronger than mine. But, even then, there would be a range of reactions.

For example, maybe Laura has worked with the new boss in the past. She knows his working style and personality. And, she has a good relationship with him. Her reaction to the change is likely to be stronger than mine, but she is likely not to be resistant to the change and probably doesn’t need a lot of time to absorb it and move on. It quickly becomes her new normal.

Mike, on the other hand, has not worked with the new boss in the past. He really liked his old boss. They worked well together and they had a lot in common. He’s surprised, as a matter of fact that his old boss didn’t give him a head’s up about the change that was coming. He starts to wonder if there isn’t something more to the story and that’s why he wasn’t told about the change.

His reaction is much stronger than Laura’s. ?He has a lot more questions than she does because he doesn’t know the new guy.

What’s his working style? Does he have the same expectations as the old boss? Is he going to let Mike continue to have every Thursday afternoon off to coach his son’s soccer team? Is the new guy going to be looking for somebody to blame?

You can see why different people react differently to change.

I’ve been through changes where my reaction was like Laura’s and where it was like Mike’s.

The important thing is that you are conscious about the type of reaction you are having.

I’ve developed what I call the Scale of Change Reaction. Reactions to change to range from 'Ok, moving on with my life' to 'I'm totally freaking out.'

Once you recognize the type of reaction you are having – where it falls on the scale of change reaction – you can take the appropriate actions to get yourself back toward the ‘ok’ end of the scale.

So, now you know where your reaction lies, we want to give you some tactics you can use to help you get back to the ‘ok’ end of the scale.

Give Yourself Credit

So, let’s start with the easy one. If you are already toward the ‘ok’ end of the scale, you don’t really have anything you need to do, but it is important to give yourself credit for adapting to the change.

Again, we all give ourselves a hard time about how hard it is to adapt to change because we don’t actively recognize those time when we do accept it. So, give yourself the credit and over time it will change your perspective about how good you are at dealing change.

Get Oxygen to Your Brain

If you are on the other end of the spectrum – on the total freak out end – then you need, first of all to start with a deep breath. Breath in. Breath out. You need to get to a point where your heart isn’t racing. Because, when your heart is racing you can’t think straight, and when you can’t think straight, you are starting to spin out of control.

This is where you start to imagine all the things that could go wrong. So, you need to get back to a point where you are getting plenty of oxygen to your brain.

Identify Your Concerns

Now, start to ask yourself what questions or concerns do you have about the change? The bottom line about change is that your reaction to change is driven 100% by your concern about how you are going to be impacted.

With any change, once you can get comfortable with how your world is going to change, you can accept It and move on.

Identify the Steps to Get The Info You Need to Address Your Concerns

Mike needs to get a lot of answers about how he will be impacted, and it may take him time to get those answers.

If we look back at Mike’s concerns, we see that many of them can’t be answered directly. Some of them are just going to take time to be able to come to an answer. For example, what’s the new guys’ working style? Sure, Mike could set up a meeting with him and ask him, but any answer he gets is not really going to give Mike any comfort. Mike’s going to need to see him in action to get comfortable that they will be able to work together.

Mike could also talk with Laura, who has worked with the new guy in the past, about her experience.

Look Back at Your Track Record

Think back to a time when your reaction to a change was on the freak-out end of the Scale of Change Reaction. When all was said and done, was your reaction justified? Did it turn out to be as bad as you imagined?

Sometimes it does, but I believe most of the times it doesn’t. Most of the time your initial questions get answered, the answers are acceptable, and you get used to the new normal. It is that initial period of ‘what will my new normal be’ that causes you to react to the change to become stressed.

Acknowledge the Stress

I don’t know of any way to eliminate the stress that comes with change. However, I do know that you can reduce the stress by acknowledging the stress.

I know that sounds a little meta, but stick with me here.

Change is going to happen.

You are going to react to it.

By recognizing your reaction as both natural, and driven by the need to understand the impact of the change on you, you can start to productively search for the answers you need instead of spinning out of control and causing yourself more stress.

You take control of your reaction and figure out the best way to get the information you need.

You are in charge of getting yourself through the change. By being in charge, your stress level goes down. And then, over time, as you are more productive with your reaction to change, you start to see that you’re not someone who hates change.

The next change that comes is just the next change that comes.

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