The Challenges of Change - Part 1

I've mentioned earlier that we're going through a period of high change at work and that it is stress inducing.  The change continues - we're still in a holding mode waiting for formal announcements. I'm swinging back in forth in my moods. Yesterday was a classic example.

I was meeting with my manager who asked how I was feeling about the change.  I have a certain curse that I cannot overcome, so I told her the truth.  I told her that I was in neutral, in a wait and see mode, hoping that the changes would be changes for the better, but that I was terribly disappointed in the way the whole thing was handled. It has been very top down and it has invoked a feeling a helplessness, a feeling that I am unable to influence the change - rather than it being something I am doing and embracing, it is something that is being inflicted upon me.

Though it wasn't my bosses intention (I have a very high regard for my immediate manager and a tremendous amount of personal and professional respect), all the conversation did was get me ratcheted back up again. I accept the need for change. I accept that, as an individual, I can't always influence the change, but when you try and pretend to have a collaborative environment, but don't - that just gets me fired up all over again. For me, one of the great tragedies of the whole thing has been that, through six other directors over the course of twelve plus years, we've actually had a collaborative environment and we've gone through some tough changes.  It has only been with the advent of this current director that the environment of trust and collaboration has been ruined.

I think it is a cautionary tale for management everywhere - a bad manager (or in this case a director) can destroy relationships that took years to build pretty quickly.  Then the question becomes, can those relationships be rebuild after the damage is done?  Who can say, but I definitely am on that journey right now.

As a result of the turmoil at work and a spot of inner turmoil in my personal life, I ended up spending a restless night.  I went to sleep shortly after nine p.m. and managed to sleep about seven hours, but I woke up about four A.M. and laid in bed, tossing and turning for a while as I worked my way through the stress.

I think, when it comes to "bad changes", I am an advocate of the "rip the band-aid off" approach.  Determine the reason for the change. Determine the specifics of the change. Communicate the change and the reasons for the change. Implement the change.  Allow opportunities for honest feedback. Focus on building the "new relationships".  Once we know what the change is going to be, we can react to it and make our decisions accordingly. It is the state of uncertainty that is so stressful.

As I am sitting here preparing to re-enter the working world for the day, I have a handle on the oncoming change again. Unintentionally, my boss send me cascading through the emotions associated with change by wanting to talk about it.  Lets just get it over with.