Preparing for Change
We’ve entered change season!
As I type, students around the country are encountering changes brought on by the end of yet another semester. Classes have ceased meeting and final exams have begun. Once they’ve aced their finals, many students will undertake a second major change: they’ll enter the world of work as interns, summer associates or new hires.
The prospect of change can evoke very different reactions and those initial reactions can turn into self-fulfilling prophesies. People who react to the promise of change with gleeful anticipation tend to see change as a positive event. They believe positive things will come out of any change. Others view change in a more negative light. They see change as a loss of what is known and comfortable. It’s a threat to their status quo.
Everyone can manage change most effectively if they prepare for resistance and then develop resilience.
Prepare for resistance
When faced with a change that is perceived as being potentially negative—whether or not the change truly is—virtually everyone progresses through a 7-stage process. Key stages include:
Stage 1: Immobilization
Stage 2: Denial
Stage 3: Anger
Stage 4: Bargaining
Stage 5: Depression
Stage 6: Testing
Stage 7: Acceptance
So, a student who had planned to spend the summer at a paid internship at a corporate marketing department might greet a change in plans—the internship has been discontinued—with the following reactions: 1) I can’t believe the email I just received from corporate regarding my internship; 2) This can’t possibly be right, someone’s made a mistake; 3) How could they do this to me? Don’t they know that I turned down another offer? 4) Maybe if I offered to work at no cost they’ll give me another try; 5) It’s useless to fight; 6) Maybe I should try contacting corporate and see if an alternative exists; 7) I understand my internship has been cancelled, how do I make the most of this summer.
Interestingly, these stages closely resemble those identified by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her seminal research on how terminal patients react to negative health diagnoses and their impending deaths. In many ways, death of the status quo is exactly what a perceived negative change seems to be.
As to perceived positive changes, reactions follow another pattern. The research indicates we will most likely proceed through the following stages:
Stage 1: Uninformed optimism
Stage 2: Informed pessimism
Stage 3: Hopeful realism
Stage 4: Informed optimism
Stage 5: Completion
As such a student who begins an internship, generally operates from a position of uninformed optimism (“This will be the best introduction to a career ever!”). After he or she receives a deathly boring preliminary assignment, they may quickly move to informed pessimism. (“I can’t believe I went to b-school to do work like this!?!?!”) Later assignments may boost their hopefulness regarding the internship. (“Some of these assignments have been outright stupid, but others have given me the opportunity to learn a lot.”) And with luck, by the end of the summer, they have a sound understanding of the benefits they’ve accrued as the result of the internship. (“It wasn’t perfect, but all in all, it was a great experience.”)
Promote resilience
The key to successfully tackling perceived negative or positive change involves boosting one’s personal resilience. We know that highly resilient people are more able to see change for what is: an inevitable unexpected event that likely does not mark the end of the world. They understand that progress is impossible without change. And they look for opportunities to accrue benefits from change.
Among the factors that can help you build resistance are the following:
Develop a positive world view – In my life, I’ve encountered a series of events that made huge impressions upon me: I was involved in a car accident with a drunk driver that resulted in my back being broken; I’ve encountered a brown bear in the wilds of Appalachia; And for about 90 seconds, I held in my hand a ticket for the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson. Some people would look at this accumulation of events and conclude, “You’ve narrowly escaped too many times.” Instead, I tend to view myself as the luckiest person in the world.
A positive self-concept – I am not suggesting that anyone should sit around, stare into a mirror and deliver self-affirmations à la Senator Al Franken’s old SNL character Stuart Smiley. However, the science supports a conclusion that to the extent you regularly remind yourself of the changes you’ve successfully tackled in the past, you will be more successful tackling change in the future.
Purpose – People who possess a clearly defined purpose easily tackle changes that are consistent with their purpose. A dear friend of mine is a single mother whose primary purpose involves helping her son grow up to be a productive member of society. She rapidly assesses any potential change with one question: How will this change affect my son?
Flexible thinking – In periods of rapid change, relying on established habits and ways of thinking rarely helps. People who are resilient don’t disregard what they know. Instead, they consciously seek to look at problems from different angles to see if new solutions may emerge.
Socially flexible – In periods of rapid change, it’s important to be connected socially. The truth is no one person can accurately predict the future. However, groups of people who are open to discovering possibilities and tackling roadblocks will be more successful at mastering change than a lone operator unwilling to listen to the input of others.
Organize ambiguity – Change is all about ambiguity. What was once known becomes uncertain. In such cases, the talent some people possess to spot patterns and note relationships becomes absolutely invaluable. I sometimes refer to resilient people as human kaleidoscopes. While some of us look through a tube and see a flat screen filled with a multitude of unorganized colors, resilient people know to twist the tube a little to the left and then a little to the right until clearly discernible beautiful patterns begin to emerge.
Experiment proactively – Truly resilient people see out opportunities to test theories. “Let’s give it a try,” then often say. “What do we have to lose?” they might ask. They know that in periods of intense change doing the same old thing the same old way will rarely yield successful results. They open up their hearts and minds to the possibilities.
What You Need To Know
Leaving school and entering the world of work represents a huge change. You can be more successful at adapting to that change by developing personal resilience.
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