Your Perspective on Organizational Change Matters

The following is adapted from Speak Up or Stay Stuck.

As a leader in your organization, perhaps you’ve been asked to deliver difficult messages that executive leaders have made without first giving you a chance to have your voice heard. You may feel emotionally exhausted and often find yourself frustrated at the senior leaders who may not understand how their decisions impact you in a negative way, yet the changes keep piling on you without an end in sight.

Organizational change can be scary because it involves major adjustments to the way a business functions, and you may feel resistant and reluctant to embrace the decisions from senior leadership as forced change comes at you quickly.

At some point in life, most people come to believe one of these two things: (1) Change happens to me, or (2) I make change happen. Perhaps you find yourself somewhere in between, depending on the situation, but be honest with yourself. Where on the spectrum do you gravitate most of the time?

Your perspective on organizational change can make all the difference to your success.

Control What You Can

We can agree that some things in life happen to us, such as the family we are born into, where we were raised, our life circumstances, and so forth. On the other hand, some things in life we get to choose, like where we live and where we work.

As you consider the entire span of your life, what does your mind naturally gravitate toward?

In the book Hero on a Mission, Donald Miller says, “Psychologists have associated an external locus of control with higher levels of anxiety, higher rates of depression, lower wages, and troubled relationships. An internal locus of control, on the other hand, has been shown to correlate with a stronger sense of belonging, less depression, higher wages, and more fulfilling relationships.”

An external locus of control is when we give away our power to external forces, whereas internal locus of control is when we have agency. Why does this matter? When you view others as more powerful than you, you are giving your power away. Can you identify ten good choices that you intentionally made in your life that you will never regret because of where they’ve led you now? Your internal locus of control empowers you to have ownership of your choices and credit for the outcomes.

To desire control and stability in our lives is normal, yet we all struggle with what is truly in our control. We don’t like change because we fear loss of control, but when change happens, few things are truly in our control. Most changes in life we can’t control. The sooner we make peace with that, the happier we will be. However, when change happens, you can control your own expectations, your own behavior, and how you perceive the world. Once you embrace the reality of life and acknowledge your feelings, your perspective and attitude changes.

Wisdom is not to fight change but to leverage it.

We know we don’t have ultimate control over everything that happens in our lives, but we recognize that we have perceived control of change, such as having a plan, which typically helps us feel more grounded. Following a process helps us understand what’s coming ahead. Checking off lists helps us feel like we are accomplishing tasks that we’ve set for ourselves. If these things are helpful, then go ahead and insert as many of them as you want into your daily routines.

In her book, Ask for More, Alexandra Carter, an award-winning negotiation trainer, encourages people to ask the following question: “What’s the worst step I could take?...Freeing ourselves to consider the worst-case scenario often gives us clarity on what might be better.” This can help you identify the actions that are within your control and what you need to release because it is out of your control.

When it comes to organizational change, considering the worst option can provide you clarity and freedom from fear as you explore your feelings and identify the potential outcomes. If you are struggling with change, show yourself and others compassion while having the courage to identify and explore the emotions that change can bring as you move forward.

Remember that You Have Agency

Everything is always changing. Our world is changing. Your organization is changing. Your leaders are changing. You are changing.

Can you imagine a world that doesn’t change? Something would be wrong. We are continuously on a journey of becoming someone new, and yet our thoughts are commonly stuck in the past. We replay times when things didn’t work out in our favor. The most important story is the story you tell yourself.

What can you do to find your courage when uncertainty in the workplace is on the horizon? Perhaps it’s not change that you are afraid of. Perhaps instead you fear not being given grace as you navigate change. You may fear retaliation, so you hold back engagement. You may fear rejection and humiliation, so you shut off your senses as a way to cope.

Fear creates tunnel vision; it increases the heart rate and limits the ability to make sound judgments. The subconscious mind takes over during fear, and we revert to survival behaviors. When you find yourself in that space, pause! Separate yourself from the heat of the moment, take a few deep breaths, and remember that all people who fulfill their purposes in life face fear. That’s inevitable and part of being human.

It’s not the elimination of fear that you need; it’s the ability to be afraid of change but make change anyway. You can use fear to your advantage. Fear helps you assess situations, identify dangers, gain wisdom, and prepare for what’s ahead. Healthy fear is not resistance to change; it is discernment of what needs to change, and it deserves to be met with a helping attitude, not judgment.

Find Inner Peace with the Things You Can’t Control

Reflect on the feeling of anxiety when change is initiated. What will it feel like to overcome your fears? Why are you afraid in the first place? Fear that you can identify is fear you can endure and overcome. Fear can help you assess your circumstances and prepare.

When we imagine things that haven’t happened yet, our minds can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is not. If you continually tell yourself that bad things happen to you at work, your brain will believe you and you will notice only negative experiences. Instead, replace negative thoughts with, I am successful at work! What if you repeated that sentence to yourself every day, multiple times a day? Just imagine yourself saying this statement throughout your day.

You decide how to experience change in your life by how you frame it in your thoughts. You can’t run away from fear—you have to work with it, or it will disable you.

For more advice on workplace change, you can find Speak Up or Stay Stuck on Amazon.

Pam Marmon is the CEO of Marmon Consulting, a change management consulting firm that provides strategy and execution services to help companies transform. From executives at Fortune 100s to influencers at all levels, Pam helps leaders achieve lasting organizational change with minimal disruption. She is also the bestselling author of No One’s Listening and It’s Your Fault, a book that equips leaders to get their message heard during organizational transformations, and the creator of the LESS change management framework. Pam and her family live in Franklin, Tennessee, and chase adventures wherever the road takes them.