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3 Ways to Keep the Change

Guest post by: Sylvia Lafair

Article Overview: Think about it for a minute; as a kid you were told what was going to happen. You were told you were moving to a new house, or a new city, or a new school. Your family did not wait until they got your "buy in", you were just packed along with the furniture and off you all went.

3 Ways to Keep the Change

When I ask participants in my seminars how many of them are comfortable with conflict my hand is usually the only one in the air. When I ask how many are comfortable with change about 25 per cent of the hands go up in the room.

So, therefore, from this vast scientific experiment I deduce that workplace conflict is dreaded and workplace change is a little bit easier to accept.

I then took the challenge to peel away the layers of why conflict and change are so difficult for most of us. What seems to be at the core of the resistance is the fear of not having any control.

Think about it for a minute; as a kid you were told what was going to happen. You were told you were moving to a new house, or a new city, or a new school. Your family did not wait until they got your "buy in", you were just packed along with the furniture and off you all went.

At work when change occurs there are 3 major issues to consider:

• 1. Change is emotional: you can offer the best rational reasons for change to take place yet, unless you help people grapple with the emotional underbelly of what is going on you miss the key points, the ones that need to be talked about but rarely are
• 2. Everyone needs to contribute: this is critical to the success of the change process. Otherwise it is too much like the kid being told and it breeds resentment and restrictions
• 3. Change takes time: projects need tending and require time and conversations. This is where everyone can become comfortable with the action plan and do their specific part, it creates the glue of cooperation when everyone works together and keeps the vision of the new alive.

The best way to handle the conflict that erupts when change is happening is to keep lots of visuals around the office. One slogan that works is "From Now to New" and let staff find the icons that speak to where the change is meant to take everyone.

I have found that pictures do take the place of 1000 words and one icon that kept a food and beverage company moving forward was of Santa on a surfboard, beard and belly flying. It signified that the team would get a great extra vacation period when the tough work, like Santa's, would be over. This playful image was on walls and in emails and helped to bond the teams together.

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Article Tags: 3 ways, change, conflict, conversations, Cooperation, emotions



Related Forum Posts
Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
Re: Ideas For Business - Stas and lucy, Could you guys give us a recap of your entire business idea as it stands now. Seems like it morped a bit. Let us know: 1. Start date 2. Ways you will Market 3. What you will offer 4. How much will your charge for your offer
Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers - Hi GT It is only fairly recently that people in South Africa have been able to get full use of Paypal as we were only able at one time to make payments but not receive them. Fortunately this has now changed. I have received money through Global X Change for one of the affiliate programs that I promote and have found them pretty good as the money is normally transferred directly into my bank account within 2-3 days and I have not had any problems with them. MichelleJ
Re: Improving Cash Flow - Thanks for your information. guide on how to avoid the problems of over trading. <-- Where is this guide? Any URL? guide on debt factoring and invoice discounting: the basics. <-- Where is this guide? Any URL? I just want to learn more about this. I am also looking for a good article on: What exactly is Cash Flow? Ways to improve cash flow at individual level and organizational level? I think it is a problem of thinking and mind sets problem. If we can change the way of spending, we can have more Cash. Robert
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":3kaa8sg4] Obama WILL make changes... but they're not the changes we as a country need or should look forward to.[/quote:3kaa8sg4] Sad but this is exactly how I feel about it. Change is coming - but unless I'm really wrong, it is not a change this country needs. Amazing how much a good speaker with a good speech writer can do. If you paid attention to the things he said "off script" - much of it is frightening. Chris


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