The Keys to Conquering Change: 100 Tales of Success
Like any good book about professional and personal success, The Keys to Conquering Change starts out by stressing the role of positive attitude combined with proactive behavior. Part of the opening quote reads: “âÂ?¦How people react to the changes that confront them, or those that they seek, has a great deal to do with whether they achieve their goals!”
The book acknowledges that change is often uncomfortable, even frightening, and because of this it is often viewed as crisis. However, according to Webster, “crisis” is “an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference for better or worse.” Crisis, or change, is not good or bad, but neutral.
One’s reaction, on the other hand, can significantly influence whether the outcome will be beneficial or detrimental. Any crisis, therefore, can be considered an opportunity. Change provides 100 personal vignettes of people who have experienced life-altering changes and focuses on how their reactions changed their destinies for better or worse.
It can become difficult to read personal anecdote after personal anecdote for 270 pages. However, in doing so, I began to wonder if a book such as Change might have found a place among readers in today’s unstable economic environment.
With so many large corporations laying off, downsizing, or closing their doors completely, we hardly meet anyone anymore who doesn’t know of at least a few people who are seeking employment (if it is not we who are seeking it ourselves). The economy is unstable, our jobs are unstable, and it seems that we are all either facing changes, or fearing they may come.
If there is anything to gain from reading Change, it is a feeling that no matter what comes our way, we can face it with a positive attitude, learn from it, and even make sure we benefit from it. Although many of the stories involved changes to the work environment-terminations, career moves, or relocations-there were many others that dealt with relationship changes, health changes, and unexpected tragedies or gains.
But not all of the stories have happy endings. Some of the lessons learned could best be described as lessons in what not to do, But one thing all of the stories in Change have in common is this: Each of these people learned something that will be helpful the next time he/she faces a major life change. And Change provides us an opportunity to learn these lessons without attending the school of hard-knocks ourselves.
It is high praise to say that the influence of Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People) is strong in Change. Covey’s philosophies of personal responsibility and extending and exercising influence are restated and honed in this book to specifically focus on positive ways to deal with life-altering changes.
The most strongly stressed point in Change is the importance of positive attitude. Even when facing the most out-of-control situation, the one thing over which we always have total control is our attitude (our reaction and subsequent response). The book does not try to pretend we can control our lives or anticipate every change; but it does advise that we acknowledge areas where we have little control and seek appropriate help in those areas.
The world is full of people with different perspectives and skills, and there is no shame in understanding our limitations and seeking the help of those better suited in certain situations. If we are having difficulty finding work-why not seek the help of a placement specialist? When our cars break down, don’t we seek the help of mechanics? When we feel ill equipped to face new situations, why not consider those around us as possible resources? And yet, there are those who are afraid they will appear incompetent or ridiculous by asking for help. But being able to realize when help is needed is, itself, a valuable skill.
Change does not prescribe a single process to deal with change. Instead it offers examples of many processes. The book promotes the idea that there are no objectively ideal ways to deal with a change; there is only what works best for you. Many of the success stories in Change were handled in very different ways by people with very different personalities. And some of the not-so-successful endings were surprising in view of the motivated and talented people involved.
The authors address such items as, “Not changing _is_ change…[it] only makes a bad situation worse,” and “you have to take responsibility for yourself and know that you can’t change anyone else.” They also stress that, “Your ability to handle a significant change is directly linked to your motivation for making a change.” This, again, goes back to attitude. Why are you making this change? Sometimes even the most difficult and terrifying changes can be faced without hesitation once we realize the great value of what we expect to gain.
Even in the face of changes we have no control over, Changes urges a positive attitude of, “I didn’t ask for this, but I can at least make it work for me.” It isn’t always easy to find a positive way of facing every change; but I challenge you to consider the worst possible situation you can imagine having to face, and then ask yourself this: How will maintaining a negative attitude help me through this? When a situation is so bad that it seems ludicrous to feel positive about it, remember that a negative attitude only ever serves to make things worse.
In addition to tackling the issues of personal change, the book also addresses issues of group change, such as might occur in a corporate restructuring. Change stresses the importance of communication, commitment, vision, honesty, expectations, limitations, and clearly stated and agreed-upon goals when facing a group change. Again, Sujansky and Sprang take Covey’s philosophy that independent people working together can accomplish more than any one of them working alone, and they strike at the heart of how to handle change in groups.
Beyond personal change and group change, Sujanski and Sprang touch on the benefits of enlisting a coach as a motivator and guide in handling change. The authors aren’t strictly speaking of a professional coach, but instead of anyone we respect who is available to offer positive support and additional vision. The book also addresses the idea that all of us can be role models to others, especially corporate managers-whose behavior is often emulated by subordinates.
One of the last ideas in Change, again, reminded me of Covey’s philosophy: “Begin with the end in mind.” The authors of Change restate this concept and apply it to change by explaining, “Just like a pilot or a sailor, you need to plot the route of your journey by fixing your sights on your final destination and charting your course.”
If you don’t know where you want to be, how can you possibly expect to get there? It is always a good idea to make sure you have a clearly stated goal before proceeding. If a change is being thrust upon you, what can this change accomplish for you? If you are initiating a change yourself, what do you want it to accomplish? Take a moment, think, and define your goal before you make a move.
In the end, the authors sum up the key to conquering change with this statement: “It’s about accepting what we cannot control; it’s about positive thinking; it’s about partnering; it’s about helping others cope, too; it’s about readjusting our expectations, as well as about keeping our sense of what’s important to us. It’s about taking risks and setting goals. It’s about finding strength when we thought we were weak, courage when we thought we were afraid, and action when we thought we were unable to move.”
In this economy of fear and flux, a book like Change can offer not only comfort but also good ideas for helping us make decisions that could otherwise seem overwhelming. If you are fearful of change, if you hate to make a decision, if your passivity often makes you feel as though you could be doing so much more, then you could very well find something useful in these tales of change.
The Keys To Conquering Change: 100 Tales of Success by Joanne G. Sujansky and John van Sprang. (Second Printing) ISBN 0-9654465-1-4. KEYGroup: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Amsterdam. Available for $19.95 from the KEYGroup, 724/942-7900.
