7 Ways To Manage Change

It has been said that managing change is the most difficult skill to learn. This article will make it easier.

While most of us know that change is inevitable, it is still something that we find discomforting. Here are 7 ways that will help you to manage change easily and with more comfort.

1. Manage Life Cycles. Change cycles, or life cycles, are the fundamental way things work. They describe how everything has a birth, periods of growth and peaking, and periods of decline and death. Such cycles include natural events such as the passing of the seasons, products, team growth and disbandment, and the rise and fall of organizations. If we do not manage them, these cycles can only lead to our demise. But if we work with them, we can manage them to survive and grow.

2. Manage Structures. The predominant structure of organizations in the Industrial age was the pyramidical shape of the hierarchy. These organizations divided power and influence according to position on the pyramid, with most power concentrated at the top. In times of rapid change, such as those we are experiencing today, the hierarchy doesn't work. It is too slow to respond to the need for change. Instead, organizations need structures that are flexible, adaptable, and quick to change.

3. Manage Chaos. In stable organizations, it is easy to establish a framework for working and stick to it. Because change comes slowly, these established procedures can last for what seems like a long time. But in times of constant change, finding one way to work and sticking to it is a recipe for extinction. Instead, you need to be ready to change plans, change procedures, and change goals. It's what you might call managing chaos.

4. Manage Risk. We all like to feel safe. Whether physically or psychologically, a feeling of safety protects us from a potentially hostile world. But we do not grow if we stay inside our comfort zones. Instead of protecting us from the outside world, we become prisoners behind our own walls. When change is an ever-present, the key to survival is to take the risk of moving outside of our safety zones and grasping the opportunities which change presents.

5. Manage Learning. Learning is at the heart of managing change. Learning not only equips us with the skills to cope with new situations. It also creates the right mindset to approach change. In learning, we let go of old ways in favour of new. We adopt attitudes of curiosity, enquiry and experimentation in place of attitudes of complacency and "we know it all". Learning teaches us how to be patient, how to work with the flow of things, and how to understand our world. And in continuous learning, we become masters of change.

6. Manage The Process. Every one of us goes through the process of change in our lives from birth to death and all other life changes in between. Sometimes these are natural processes, such as birth; sometimes the change comes out of the blue such as an unexpected bereavement; and sometimes we initiate the change ourselves. In all cases, the stages of changing are the same and involve letting go of old identities and putting on new ones. Whether the change is successful or not depends on whether we see it as a painful process to be resisted, or an opportunity for personal growth.

7. Manage Uncertainty. In times of change, it is unlikely that the plans and goals we set ourselves will work out exactly as we expect. Few of us can predict with absolute confidence what will happen in the future. Even the information we base our plans on is likely to be out of date before we complete our work. This does not mean not having plans. The only difference is, that, in times of change, we must not be surprised if they don't remain the same and don't themselves change. In response, we must learn to accept and manage uncertainty.

When we respond to change with fear, idleness, insecurity, lack of awareness, or clinging to the past, we will become casualties of change. When we respond with courage, a new sense of security, a desire to learn, and anticipation of the future, we can become champions of change.