Is inevitable

Is a part of life

Can happen unexpected

Can have positive or negative effect

I bet you have heard that thousands times but yet why is it so difficult for some people to go through changes? Why for some it feels almost impossible to change their ways of doing and why for some it comes so naturally? Is it nature or nurture, as Francis Galton would have asked?

As you can imagine there is no black or white answer to this – it all depends: on our capacity to handle unexpected events, our experience, our mindset, expectations, our current situation and many others.

Let’s start from the beginning. What is change (every time I hear this question in my mind, my mind sings “baby don’t hurt me, no more”) ? Oxford Dictionary explains to us that change is “the process of replacing something with something new or different; a thing that is used to replace something.

In provided definition we have important parts:

• The process
• Replacing with something new
• Replacing with something different

Change is a process

What does it mean that change is the process? It can be explained in two ways:

• change is the process as in there’s a change that has to be introduced and its preparation & implementation is a process that requires time, engagement, understanding, resources, etc.
• change is the process as in going through a change is a process. Meaning as an individual you experience a change that is sudden and you need to readjust.

Both ways of seeing ‘change is the process’ can be perceived from perspective of an organisation or an individual.

Let’s have a look into organisation’s perspective. Goal of each business is to be profitable. In order to achieve this, organisations need to react to what’s happening in the market, they need to adjust their way of workings, revise their products, processes, see what can be improved, what can be removed as obsolete. Such observations often results in triggering changes. To introduce successful change within an organisation we need much more than just an observation, trigger and drive for change – it’s a process. It’s process of preparation that has to include analysis of current situation, vision for the bright and prosperous future & the gap analysis so that we know where we are, where do we go and what waits us in between.

Now let’s have a look into individual’s perspective. Change is a process, when you sit in your armchair and you say it out loud, what do you see? I guess you see some visualisation of future self. Your future self has certain attributes, attitude, etc. It’s the goal and direction towards which you want to strive. Of course you also know your present self and you see potential gap in between your future self and present self. So how to fill this gap? It’s a process of change, it’s process of going from point A to point B.

No matter the perspective – individual’s or organisation’s – change as a process is like a road, sometimes bumpy, sometimes curvy but in both situations we have a direction and goal to strive for.

Something new

Another aspect that is mentioned in the definition of change in Oxford dictionary ‘replacing with something new’.

When I think about ‘something new’ I automatically have in mind association that it has to be something better, otherwise while bothering with replacing? But is it always a case? I bet many of you answered no & I agree. ‘Replacing with something new’ not always is a good change.

Something different

‘Replacing with something different’ as mentioned in Oxford dictionary in my mind indicates replacing with something with brings more value, makes things easier, etc. But exactly as in previous paragraph it doesn’t have to be like that, it doesn’t have to be a good change.

We dismantled the change definition to smaller pieces but it’s not the whole picture of the change. It’s just a beginning. What do you think is part of a change and decides of the change being successful?