As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: “there is nothing permanent except change” and for almost all of us this year has been one of great change, which has been imposed upon us. Some have adapted easily and for others the change has been hard to adjust to.
For many the process of change can be a scary prospect, taking them outside their comfort zone and into the unknown. How people react to change and stages that they go through as they adapt to change are both topics I find fascinating. Many businesses have failed to land large change programmes because they did not take the time to understand how the change would affect their teams and did not understand how to support them through the process of change.
I was lucky enough to be asked to join some very interesting individuals on a round table discussion on change. The event was arranged by the Federation of Small Businesses and was entitled “Make Change Work for You”. I was joined by Mark Kennedy and Jonathan Pittam as speakers and Sally Wood was the host. She skilfully led us through discussions on our own personal change journeys as well as helping us to share models, tools and techniques that can help both those going through change as well as those supporting them.
I took the opportunity to share some models on change including the Kubler Ross Change Curve and Scott & Jaffe’s Change Model. Both models explain the stages that individuals go through during a period of change and what support they need at each stage.
For many people who have gone through major change in their lives the change is a positive thing when they look back on it, either for the results or the lessons learned during the change. Whatever your experience of change it is a fact of life and understanding change and how to deal with it or help other to do so is an important skill.
I thoroughly enjoyed taking part and took away some great tools and techniques as well as a greater understanding of how others have managed to flourish after unexpected change.
