What It Looks Like When You’re Agile With Change

Years ago, when a big change at my then-company was about to throw our lives into disarray, my husband announced succinctly: “We fear change!”

He said it like a mantra. Like he was going to go get a T-shirt with that as the slogan. And at the time it felt just about perfect. Because for a lot of people change brings uncomfortable uncertainty.

Lately I’ve been thinking less about how we manage ourselves (and our teams and our peers and our families) through a particular change … and more about how we PREPARE ourselves for change in general. How we create a mindset—and skills—that will serve us well for any change that inevitably comes along. (Since change is coming along faster and faster. Right?)

In The Leadership Line podcast, Tammy Rogers, recently compared handling change in today’s work environment to taking a hike. When you go for a normal walk, you usually walk on pretty even ground, where you can see the path forward rather clearly. But when you’re hiking, you’re working your way around rocks and over tree roots. You’re finding yourself at a river, or dodging pointy branches. Sometimes the path isn’t very well established and you just have to hope you’re still headed in the right direction.

And just like when you’re going on a hike, there are some things you can do to prepare yourself for the journey of change. You don’t know exactly what you’re going to experience, but you can stock up on some gear that will help you.

Here are some tools that can help you build the muscles you need to traverse the rocky terrain of change when you come upon it:

• Curiosity. Getting good at asking questions can help you be less reactive when someone announces a change. I’m not talking about asking questions that challenge (“What makes you think that will work?!”), but inquiries that help you see the change from multiple perspectives. “What’s the desired outcome?” “How will this help us create a better customer experience?”
• Growth mindset. This means being ready to see the opportunity, not just the hard parts, of a change. “I might not be excited about this, but what’s RIGHT with this plan?”
• Self-awareness. Reflecting on your own psyche can help you get intentional about how you act. “What is it about this change that makes me uncomfortable?” “Why am I having this reaction?” “What can I learn from how I’ve reacted to past changes, and what do I want to do differently this time?”
• Comfort with ambiguity. Some people are really comfortable living in the gray areas of life. Other people … not so much. If you’re one of the latter, you can build your muscles in this regard. In my “Being Agile with Change” workshop, we practice making decisions where we have a LITTLE LESS certainty than we’d like. And then practice decisions that are increasingly less certain.
• The buddy system. Just like when you’re hiking, it can be helpful to have a friend with you. To be change-ready at work, build a support system of people who can help you find perspective, bounce ideas around, get curious, or just commiserate a tiny bit without falling off the negativity cliff. Change is easier if you don’t feel like you’re in it alone.

You can’t avoid change. But you can gather some gear, build some resilience, and have some skills in your backpack so that when it comes, you’re ready to climb.