Change Needs Management

Chatting with a missionary friend for several days, we enjoyed discussing the challenges any part of the world faces with the concept of change. He comes from Liberia, West Africa, and his country recently went through a Revolution and many were killed and displaced. Life was difficult and different during the change and is sufficiently different today than it was 30 years ago. He is my age and his experiences with life are totally different than mine. It has been an interesting conversation!

A major portion of our dialogue revolved around the differences between Revolution and Evolution. Forcing change versus Allowing for change to happen over a longer period of time.

This brought me to a thought process about the changes I’ve been a part of in my life when was it forced on me, and how differently did I accept change as it evolved?

How do we make change happen? Or allow for it to occur?
Can new ideas be introduced efficiently?
Can change be sold as something necessary?
Or is it better forced down our throats?
Are we sure it’s beneficial for the greater good?
Do we resist more what we do not understand or agree to?

Add to all of this, “What do you do when no one listens, or cares, about the needs you express?” How do you deal with the changes that fail to come or the changes that overwhelm your life?

Repeatedly we have seen marchers hijack the conversation to present their case, demanding change, shouting down those in opposition and thinking they are right because they have the louder voice. I am resistant to this and will tune off and tune out the shout and the march.

Often, the change sought for is simply a knee-jerk reaction to perceived wrongs or needs. It may be there is some meat on the bone for what must be changed, but getting everyone to the conversation is difficult. If the change sought for has no proven gain or benefit, then no one will win even if the change occurs.

“There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse;
as I have found in traveling in a stagecoach,
that it often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.”
~Washington Irving (Tales of a Traveler – 1824)

Here are my thoughts about managing change, and I often revisit these thoughts as change is demanded of me, and by me!

Change can be difficult. It can hurt. It can impact your life. You can be forced from your comfort zone into a place of new discomfort. Talk to any of us who have experienced a change in technology.

After a long weekend of migrating our keypunch card data to disk storage in 1978 or so, my manager threw up his hands and declared, “Let’s go back to cards!” “I’ll quit!” in jestful warning…said I…but not really. Cards were on their way out and it was past time to improve our world.

Change can be fearful! Just like staying with floppy disks was never a right move, adding multiple computers to automobiles have made them more efficient – and more difficult to diagnose and repair by the shade tree mechanic. Everything changes and is improved and better than ever before! Right? From cereal to automobiles, to homes! Now we hear of hackers from China reaching into the Tesla vehicles from afar and making their brakes activate without warning… That’s Change!  [Source]

Change can be forced and you have nothing to say about it! Recently, I read the news that Apple is no longer producing two product lines – Nano and Shuffle. I have an older Nano that makes the trip around the yard, producing music for my ears while I mow. When it quits what will I buy to replace it? My world is shaken. It’s changing. How do I survive?

“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” ~Chicken Little

Change can be negative just as easily as it can be positive. We are living in a state of constant change. Not just in one industry, but globally. We have migrated from snail mail to fax, to email, to text… what’s next? I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s coming!

We need to learn how to manage the change as it impacts our personal world. You cannot change everything at one time, nor can you accept constant change in every area. You must choose what is important and necessary and migrate to your destination in a controlled fashion.

Sometimes, it simply means changing our perception.

Regardless, you must manage change.

Or change will overrun you! Not just the world around you, it will force you to migrate from your comfort zone, from who you think you are, to what everyone else wants you to be! It’s easy to throw up a wall to stop change, but if you do not learn how to manage change then you will be left behind. Terribly so!

“People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!” ~Peter Senge

I know I resist being changed! Who I am is important to me! What I am is important to me, and my areas of responsibilities! Who I choose to become…well, that’s a good thought process. I wonder… how much have I changed from the person I thought I was 40, or 50, years ago?

Before you think I’m rigid and set in stone, I’m a proponent of change that improves our options of living. I have lived through some radical changes in society and my viewpoint on many topics have changed over time. But there is still a core of me that yearns to be consistently the same.

Like the writers of the Old Testament penned the words of God, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.” (Malachai 3:6), and in the New Testament, they spoke of Jesus Christ as “…the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

There is a spiritual and conditional living part of me that wants to remain consistent with scriptural teachings and principles. But that does not mean the framework I live and work in must always stay the same! No! I’m better than living in a cave!

I like to stay at the leading edge of technology, just not on the bleeding edge. This does not make me blindly accept every new thing that comes along. I’m willing to let it prove itself before I spend hard earned money and time!

Think with me a moment. If change is happening, what are you doing to infiltrate the events into your life?

We see the migration to automobiles from horseless buggies and onto some future propulsion device that we cannot even imagine. Truly, we are approaching the Jetsons lifestyle! The home went from a well you drew sustenance from the hole in the back yard to a water system that delivers consistent pressure to every opening in the house. That brick analog device first called mobile is now a sleek sliver of marvelous electronics that let you connect with the world.

Summary. There is much change happening every moment of the day! Managing the changes are important to all of us! Finding the changes that are important to adapt into our lives is very important! Not following fads just because it’s new is equally important.

Keep your eyes open and imagine this change that’s coming, and what’s around the bend you cannot even perceive. It’s coming!