“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”
Voltaire, philosopher
#TryDifferent #change #reorganization
If change comes to your workplace, and you are expected to be part of it, how do you embrace it?
Karl G. Schoemer discussed this in his book, “Try Different, Not Harder: 15 Rules for Mastering Change.”
So let’s set up the scenario: Your company is reorganizing. You will be placed in a job which you never expected to do. Your boss tells you to figure it out. You are scared to death. What do you do?
Schoemer says, ”Step on the gas. Don’t just improve the process, look critically to see whether the process is necessary anymore. … Don’t study it to death. Forget perfect. You need to be fast and good enough.”
In other words, if your organization is changing, EVERYONE will be working on the fly. Many people will be new in their roles. Many won’t have a clue where to begin, yet they MUST begin.
Complacency is worse than fear. Don’t be afraid to ask questions like, “how did they do this before and why was it done that way?” Then, if that question is answered, find a better way to do it.
Just as jobs become different from what you may have been originally hired for, processes become outdated or obsolete. You embrace change not by sticking with the old, but by finding the new.
When looking for the new, you may find opportunity. Opportunity comes to those who don’t necessarily look for it, but to those who look for other things that can make the work easier, cheaper and better. To say it another way, as Schoemer writes: when you put yourself out there and embrace change, solutions can find you. If you hide behind what was, the solutions remain hidden from you.
Suppose you are one of those whose company has changed, and you are not a part of it? You have to embrace your own change, rather than complain about what you have lost.
You have to put yourself out there. Look for your own solutions. They may come from people and places you would never expect. If you keep looking, eventually you will find what you need and what you want.
If you need some help looking for such solutions, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You may find something you never thought you would look for. But that’s part of embracing change – finding the unexpected and realizing what you have found.
“Opportunities today are so widespread that the challenge has become sorting through them,” Schoemer writes.
To find the opportunities to sort through, one must look. Sometimes, it may be uncomfortable to look. Perhaps it’s even difficult to do something you’ve never done before. Still, you will know that you can do what you need to do, even if it’s uncomfortable, even if it’s not perfect, even if it’s not ideal.
So become flexible like putty, rather than hard like concrete. Be curious and ask questions, rather than presume you have all the answers. Be open to learning new things, rather than closed by only what you know.
Embrace change, rather than hug the past. Though the latter seems more comfortable and cozy, the former will propel you to success.
Peter
Tag Archives: reorganization
CHANGE COMES WHETHER WE ARE READY …OR NOT: PART 2
“The only sense that is common in the long run is the sense of change – and we all instinctively avoid it.”
Author E.B. White
#TryDifferent #change #reorganization
We avoid things that hurt. We sometimes avoid things that take effort. We often avoid things we don’t know.
Change can be all of those things. One of the 15 rules that Karl G. Schoemer points out in his book on change is its title: “Try Different, Not Harder.”
In discussing this, Schoemer cites this common complaint during times of change in the workplace: “I can’t work any harder. I’m already working harder than I ever have.” As he points out, we sometimes are more comfortable redoubling our efforts than changing them. Thus, the instinctive response: “The way we’ve been doing it has always been good enough, so more of the same should be better.”
In the modern world, organizations have to change. Workers can be part of the change, or excluded from it through layoffs and other downsizing. If you are part of the change, your role in the company could, and probably will, change.
If you are new to a company, and they are hiring you for a certain job, know this: what they are hiring you for today may not be what you will ultimately be doing a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now.
Job situations change – some might say deteriorate – over time. Perhaps you have been in a job which, after a few years, had no resemblance to what you were hired to do. Or, your job now INCLUDES what you were hired to do, plus something else. You may feel you are doing the work two or more people should be doing.
In the past, unions, or even companies themselves, protected employees by keeping them in jobs that are no longer needed, relevant or could be done by machines or other technology.
In today’s world, companies can’t afford that. So here’s a rule of thumb: presume your job will change, even deteriorate, over time. You won’t be able to do much about it. By the same logic, promotional and expansion opportunities will be fewer, and farther between.
What to do?
As Schoemer and others advocate, learn new skills. Take advantage of additional training your company, or other institutions, may offer.
Don’t presume that working harder at what you’re doing will get you farther. It could get you out the door.
A better option might be finding another source of income, just in case you get shown the door before you want to be. For one of the best of many such options, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Most of all, don’t complain that your employer just doesn’t see how valuable you are. No matter your age, or how good you are at what you do, you are expendable. You are an expense to your employer. If you see that what you are doing is becoming less important to the business as a whole, or you – God forbid – are having trouble filling up your day at work, a red flag should go up in your head. If you don’t have a Plan B, you should get one quickly. Remember: if you see instances in which your employer might be able to live without you, your employer will soon see them, if he or she hasn’t already.
In short: work with change. Evolve with the job situation. Get better at different. Become fluent, and fluid, with change.
Peter
CHANGE COMES WHETHER WE ARE READY … OR NOT: PART 1
#TryDifferent #change #reorganization
If you don’t like change, as some leadership experts will argue, too bad! It’s going to come whether you want it or not.
If you embrace change, you will more likely be successful, those same experts may argue.
What if change comes, and you are excluded? Can you embrace that?
In his book, “Try Different, Not Harder,” Karl G. Schoemer offers 15 rules for mastering change. He says the information and technology revolution is redefining our work – what it is, how and where it’s done, who does it and how long it takes.
He also says we are also reshaping our business organizations – from how they function to what they expect of employees and what employees can expect in return.
His point: these changes create a fertile environment for even more change, and opportunities. Whether these opportunities are seized, or missed, depends entirely on you, he says.
Many of us have been through change at work. As employees, our natural reaction to change is to resist. What was comfortable yesterday is taken away today, and that can upset us. Eventually, though, we get over it and adapt, presuming we are still around to do so.
Some workplace changes leave us completely out. We are laid off, offered incentives to leave etc. If you’ve been laid off, hopefully the company will give you enough to tide you over for a time. If not, there’s not a blessed thing you can do about it – or so you think.
Sometimes, disappointment can morph into rousing success, if you don’t let the disappoint take over your life.
If you are offered an incentive package to leave a job, more often than not, there will be little time to think about it and you will not be given enough information to make a totally informed decision.
That is, no one will tell you your future with the company if you stay – unless, of course, the company tells you they won’t accept your resignation. That rarely happens. Chances are, if are determined to be eligible to take the package, the company tacitly is encouraging you to take it.
Also, most people who take such packages ultimately have few regrets. They may struggle at the beginning, but most people land in a decent place. In recent years, though, that has been the case less often. So, if it happens to you, you’ll be between a rock and a hard place, at least in your mind.
If you are between two undesirable things, remember there is always a way to crawl out.
Schoemer, like many leadership experts, recommends that we embrace change at our place of employment. It’s tough to embrace change when you are not included in it. So what to do?
Embrace yourself. Embrace your ability to ensure you will be successful. A job loss is a temporary disappointment. Don’t let it consume you. View your departure as your employer’s loss, not yours.
If you are confident in yourself to succeed, despite what might be thrown at you, and are looking for something that will enable success, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You may find something that will not only bring your self-confidence to the fore, but also enable you save money.
Perhaps, using Schoemer’s title, “Trying Different,” may have nothing to do with your current employment. Perhaps you are still employed, and trying harder to do what you’ve always done. In this milieu, that may not cut it. You may have to escape to “Try Different.”
Sometimes, those unexpected exits from your employer can be openings for something so much better.
Peter