Embrace Change!
Believe it or not, the world is changing. It is doing so with or without any input from you. Change is inevitable. You can either work with it or work against it. Working with it helps you achieve more. Working against it is tiring and eventually fruitless.
While everybody accepts that change is inevitable, accepting change is a difficult thing. This is because change takes people out of their comfort zones. And honestly, no one wants to be challenged to work outside of their comfort zone. People fear that in doing so their weaknesses will be exposed. That others will get to know their inadequacies and their shortcomings.
However, people do not consider that working out of their comfort zones will help develop parts of their personalities and their skills which were not being utilized. They will have to work harder, but they will become stronger. While people are focusing on hiding their inadequacies, they may be losing focus on the skills that they can use to become better.
Change is hard, true. But it does not have to be. Change will be hard when it is imposed. When outside forces determine the change, the process is hard as it challenges your ideals, your beliefs, your foundations.
However, when change is from within, you accept the change. In fact, you work towards making the change. It is because you believe from within that the change will be beneficial to you. You accept the change because deep inside you, you believe the change will benefit you. The change is in line with your beliefs therefore it is easier for you to accept the change.
How can you accept change? Here are a few tips:
Try to see the positive side of the change. Not all aspects of change are bad. Change brings about a lot of good. It brings growth, progress, learning, experience, improvement. Focus on the positive aspects of change rather than the negative.
See how the change fits in with your personal beliefs. People are more likely to accept change when the change is in line with their personal beliefs. Leaders also need to find congruence between the change and the company’s values so they can communicate the need and advantages of the change to the employees effectively.
Break it down into smaller steps. It is difficult to eat an elephant, but it can be done one bite at a time. Divide the change into smaller manageable steps so people are not shocked into change but assimilated into it.
Make change fun. Celebrate small successes along the way to keep people engaged. When small aspects of change are implemented and accepted acknowledge the efforts of the team, show the benefits of the change, show the growth and appreciate the team for making it a success.
Following these simple steps should make change acceptable and implementing change successful.