Change comes with resistance... Does it, really?
I've been fascinated by how easily and quickly people have adapted to changing circumstances recently.
- Organizations moved from an 8 - 5 at the office mentality to a work from home strategy overnight.
- Face-to-face meetings shifted to virtual as soon as people downloaded Zoom.
- And families found out that eating meals together was cool as soon as they were forced to stay home.
So why does change seem easier right now? I have a couple of ideas...
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We weren't really given a choice. No one asked for our input. And no one was really concerned if we were going to be "okay" with the decision. Leadership simply explained why it was necessary & expected us to follow through. And we did!
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We focused on what was important and let go of everything else. Like Dr. Vikas Jashi said, "Once the Titanic collides with an iceberg, there is little point arguing over how to arrange the deck chairs." And that allowed us get rid of a lot of crap that often gets in the way of progress.
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We accepted that we didn't/couldn't predict the future. So we didn't even try to take ALL of the risk out of the equation. We took common sense action that moved us forward. And we learned and got better through trial and error.
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We stopped worrying about perfection. During times of change people often want to get it right -- the first time. During this pandemic I'm noticing that people trying new things. We're extending grace to one another when things don't go well. And we're becoming more informal (which is bringing humanity) into the workplace.
There are a ton of leadership lessons in this real world laboratory. What have you observed?
Tammy Rogers
