Change Overview

Change is something that most people tend to avoid, but it is inevitable and necessary for improvement. Many people use a lot of energy to avoid change, even though implementing it would require less effort. We need to change our relationship with change and coach others to do the same. People often resist change, even when they acknowledge that it is needed. It is important for leaders to proactively prepare their team for upcoming changes so that they can embrace them more positively. This process, called co-authoring, allows individuals to condition their minds to be more accepting of change. When it comes to this thing called change, most people avoid change. Most people don't knock on your door and say, Boss, I'm really uncomfortable. I'm stagnant. Could you throw in some uncomfortable change today for me to get me out of my doldrums? Now, I bet you're laughing a little bit. Change tends to feel like more in addition. I've already got a pile on my desk. Yet, here's the fundamental thing about change. You cannot improve anything. You cannot change things without change. Change is inevitable. And I think sometimes our school systems, we don't talk enough about you're going to go through a lot of change just due to technology and the way things are done. And the more you embrace change, the better off you're going to be. In one of the coaching courses that we provide, we literally share this concept. People will take 150% of their available energy to avoid change that would only take 100% to actually implement the change. We're just conditioned to do that for whatever reason. So change is something that we have to change our relationship with. Most people won't arbitrarily do that on their own. That's why we need to coach people. And so I want to give you an illustration of a conversation that we had with one of our clients. And a young lady said, wow, that sounds like a lot of work. And that was her first reaction. And I said, oh, when you say that, what do you mean? And she said, well, I'm already so busy. And she went on for about two to three minutes and talked about her workload. And I said, you know what, you do sound busy. I said, can I ask you a question? Let's put your workload over here for a second. Let's not ignore it. Let's come back to it. Would you agree that that change is needed? And she said, yeah, I think we do need to do those things. Yet her defenses were to push back the change. And I said, do you realize what you just did? You know we need to do something, but you kind of said we don't need to do it. She said, you know, I didn't mean to do that. But you're right, I think I did. We all do that. People tend to not embrace change. So as you go through the questions, the activities, the learning projects, the motivator, the supplemental coaching, change is a big topic. Change is very personal for people. So one of the great suggestions I always encourage leaders to really embrace is this thing around change, by preempting change when it's needed. So if you're leading a team, one of the best things you can do is to sit down with your people and say, look, we are going to have a lot of curveballs thrown at us this year. There's going to be a lot of change. And I want you all to write down what's the best way for me to condition you, prepare you, so you can positively embrace that change. It's called co-authoring. And what they're really doing is saying, you know, I don't want to thrust upon me in one day. I want to be prepared. I want training or whatever it might be. What they're really doing is conditioning their own mind to become more accepting of the change. It doesn't mean they love it. It doesn't mean they hug it and kiss it. Yet it creates an opportunity for them to embrace change.