CHANGE MANAGEMENT: 3 Reasons to Embrace Change

How many times have you heard someone say, “Well that’s not the way we used to do it?” Or, “We’ve always done it this way.” Or my all time favorite, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” These are common comments that come with the advent of new ideas or new leadership in almost any organization. The simple fact that something new is being suggested in a company, on a committee, or as part of a project sends currents of dread through the minds of those who tend to resist change.

Buck Rogers once said that, “To the fearful, change is threatening because they worry that things may get worse. To the hopeful, change is encouraging because they feel things may get better. To those who have confidence in themselves, change is a stimulus because they believe one person can make a difference and influence what goes on around them. These people are the doers and motivators.”

Change is inevitable. It is also necessary. To say that a company has been doing business the same way for 30 years does not mean that the company will last another thirty. With competition ever-present, businesses must stay on the cutting edge and be prepared to move in a different direction as quickly as the market dictates. In fact, great companies create new markets. Customers are demanding. They want the hottest, latest, freshest ideas that are going to make their lives easier to navigate each day. Businesses providing products and services in the same way they did 30 years ago would be fine if this was 1978. And since it’s obviously not, it would be safe to say that these businesses have gone stale. They need an upgrade. It is time for change.

The CEO of Apple Computers, Steve Jobs, said in a Newsweek article in September of 2007 that they frequently “reinvent” themselves because they have to stay ahead. He created a product and the hype around it to make the iPhone one of the biggest must-haves among gadget grabbers last year.

In November of 2007, TIME magazine explored the overhauling of Wal Mart. The article stated that “Wal Mart is in the midst of a revolution, an audacious three-year plan that will change practically everything the company does: the way it builds and operates stores, the way it buys and stocks merchandise, the way it hires, trains and compensates employees.” The change is necessary in order to boost sagging sales that have cost them in the value of their stock. Meanwhile, their chief rival, Target, is enjoying a higher-valued stock price. Wal Mart can no longer function in the U. S. today the way it did when it began 45 years ago. Otherwise, it may meet with the same fate as Kmart when Wal Mart came to town.

So how do we begin to embrace change?

There are three reasons in particular that resistant people should consider in an effort to accept the inevitability of change.

1. It can fix what’s broken, and it can also improve the status quo. In leadership, it can be as life-changing as having a different type of leader with a bolder vision than what was proposed in the past. For example, in Africa, more and more women are being placed in leadership roles. Women in at least a dozen African countries are breaking the male stranglehold on national legislatures, cabinets, courts and other government institutions where corruption runs rampant, civil war and genocide is ravaging life and property, and poverty and sickness plague citizens by the millions. Women are making laws, changing attitudes, and inspiring other women to follow them.
   
2. It can lead to other changes that can continuously improve the outcome. In medicine, researchers are always looking for new ways to improve current treatment modalities for patients with chronic and acute illnesses. They learn one way but are continuously seeking out new ways to change what they just created. They tweak, they review, they experiment—all in an effort to make treatment less expensive, safer and more effective. Had they not worked to develop better and better anesthesia, we might still be asked to bite on a block of wood while having a limb amputated.
   
3. It helps us to adjust our thinking. When asked to consider doing things differently, we are forced to see the way we currently do things from a different perspective. This grows us in our knowledge and helps us to broaden our scope of understanding. Many fought and died for centuries to change the ruling majority’s mindset about the acceptance of every human being as just that—a living human being who deserved all of the same rights afforded others of a single race and/or gender. If that change of mind—and heart—had not occurred, we might not be witnessing the very strong possibility that a minority could be the new leader of this country by the end of the year.