Introduction
I am currently undertaking postgraduate studies in change management at a reputable Australian business school. The course equips students to be better organisational change agents (i.e. the ones facilitating change).
But what if change is happening to you? And what if it’s not welcome change? Well, my number one tip for navigating such situations is something I didn’t learn in a fancy school.
My war story
I was born in the former Yugoslavia but spent most of my childhood in the US due to my dad’s work. We returned to my hometown Sarajevo (now the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina) in 1988 and in 1992 the Bosnian civil war started. I was sixteen.
A lot of people wonder how we didn’t see this coming but, in all honesty, you can’t imagine something like this actually happening in your town. Well, it did and it lasted four long years.
I won’t go into my entire war story here but I will say that, despite everything, I feel I was one of the lucky ones. After one week of the war starting, my siblings and I escaped to another town where we stayed with family friends. However, my parents were stuck in Sarajevo and we didn’t see them for the next couple of years until they were able to leave.
The first six months were the worst. There was no way to get in touch with my parents. There were no phone lines and even the radio connections were no longer working. In the meantime, we watched the horrible scenes from Sarajevo on the news every night, hoping that mum and dad were not affected. Finally, after six months of silence, we got a note through the Red Cross from my mum that they were OK.
My coping strategy
I remember how I felt in my first month as a refugee.
I was so angry. I was angry that my life was turned upside down, in the worst way and without my consent. I had plans for my life and now they were disrupted.
I also felt hopeless. I had no way of knowing how long this would last. There was also the possibility that things could get even worse.
And then it dawned on me that even though I can’t stop the war, I can focus on my future after the war. I believed that the war would end eventually and I held on to that as tightly as I could. I decided that instead of feeling sorry for myself, I should focus on finishing school so that I would set myself up for success once the war was over.
I focussed on what I could control.
Of course that doesn’t mean that it was all smooth sailing from then on. It was still a very difficult situation, mainly due to the uncertainty of it all. However, my decision to change my outlook and keep myself busy with what I could control helped me get through it and eventually achieve my version of success.
How to apply this in the workplace
If you are going through change in your organisation – most people are these days – and you are not happy with the change or how it’s being communicated or implemented, you can either:
remain upset
focus on what you can control.
It’s OK to be upset initially but if it starts eating at you for too long, it may impact your work performance and, more importantly, your wellbeing.
Instead, you could use your time and energy more constructively by focusing on things you can control, such as:
continuing to do a good job every day
being grateful that you have a job and a way to provide for your family
remembering what you like about your job and knowing that this won’t change no matter who your boss is or which building you’ll be sitting in (if applicable)
reminding yourself that you are not the only one impacted by the change and perhaps even having a little whinging session over a coffee to talk things through with a team mate (a bit of venting can be helpful if you don’t get too carried away)
making an appointment with a psychologist so that you can talk things through with an unbiased professional – they can also give you expert tips on coping strategies
asking your line manager for more information about the change and the rationale behind it, to lessen the uncertainty
giving the change agents feedback on how the change process is being managed so that they can make improvements
volunteering to help implement / drive the change
as a final step, removing yourself from the situation, such as changing your job or asking for a transfer to another division.
Any thoughts?
Have you applied any of the strategies above and did they help you cope? Do you have any other tips for coping with unwelcome change? Contact me and share your thoughts.
Thanks for your time.