Change in the Office
When a company undergoes a change, or moves forward to the next phase of a project, a manager may consider the change in terms of a circle. Confront the past before you begin the new change. Some people believe that the past done, when actually we live a version of it everyday. You live with “old ideas”, “old lessons”, “old concepts” that work for you (or don’t work for you). In order to undergo change your company and your employees must look at what worked and what didn’t work, before you move forward or change into a new project. It is important to see what you have gained or what you have learned. Even a “bad” experience is a good experience if you learn from it. A mistake is simply behavior to not repeat. By discussing what worked in the past, and what didn’t work in the past, before moving unto the next phase of a project at a seminar or a long meeting, you prepare yourself and those who work under you to move forward. Most meetings cover what will be done next, instead consider covering what was done both right and wrong in the past.
Many times stress is high among co-workers when people undergo a change at an organization or even move forward to the next step of a project. Tempers flare and people have more difficulty working with each other. In a very real sense, the people in our lives represent ideas of how we think things “should be”. And it is the people in our lives that force us to change or fight us when we chose to change. The changes in our lives(and our business) take place in the interaction between ourselves and other people. In a very personal but simplified example, if you have a significant other, that significant other is at least partially your idea of what love should be or you would not be with that person. If you say, “love is having someone call me everyday” then your significant other fills that role, or your fighting about it. When you undergo change, people act differently. And needs are not met. Taking this concept into account can offset potential problems. If every Monday morning you have had a meeting for 6 months and then you no longer have that meeting, people become tense. That Monday meeting could be a sense of consistency for one person, it could be a sense of covering what to do the upcoming week for another person, it could mean more work time for yet another person. Each person will react differently to this simple change, and react differently to the person who canceled the meeting, but it is the underlying idea that matters. The manager who canceled the meeting can consider that each person’s reaction is a reflection of that person’s ideas of how the business needs to run or move forward-this can be crucial information. The individual who maybe upset about the meetings change can consider why they are so upset?
