The Process of Change in Business and Life

It’s what we think about what we want to change (our circumstances, our conditions, our environment, our future, our past, or perhaps nothing at all) that determines whether or not the change we seek will occur. It is the “why” of our desire for change that matters. When we have a strong enough “why”, change becomes inevitable. The “how” is secondary. To illustrate this point, I am going to tell you a true story. Once upon a time, there was a man who was selling encyclopedias by mail. He had a good product, and he had a reasonable price. And so, he had a pleased customer base. But then, he came up with the idea of selling his product by telephone. He thought it would be an excellent way to sell more books. And so, he experimented with this idea. And test he did! The results of his “experiment” were devastating. His sales went from 400 orders per month to 20 orders per month. Why? Because now, his customers had to pay for the cost of the call (at least they thought they did), and they had to pay for the postage cost for the book. In reality, of course, these expenses were being shouldered by him alone. But what was he to do?

He was running out of money and running out of ideas. So, what he did was he quit. But you know what? Quitting isn’t always the answer. Sometimes, when we run out of ideas or run out of money, the answer is “to quit.”. But not always. What else was he to do? Well, as it turns out, he did something else. You see, he’d been mailing his books with a real estate firm, and he realized his book mailings were going to a lot of the identical houses over and over. So, what he did was he formed a partnership with a real estate agent, and together, they started sending “double-book” offers. A double-book offer has an extra page containing a second, identical copy of one of his regular book sales pitches. The idea was, if the homeowner liked his book, he would respond to the double-book offer by ordering both the book and the second duplicate pitch. The results were spectacular! His sales went from 20 orders per month to over 3,000 orders per month! Why? Because now he had a much stronger “why” for his desire for change. You see, instead of thinking only about money, he began to think about all the other ways he could use that money to make his life better.

Change and Management

It is a perfect storm. By now, you can probably see that these two things – change and management – are intrinsically linked. Change is a fundamental part of how an organization works, and if a leader is to understand how their organization works, they must also understand change.

And the way a leader understands change is by leading it. The way a leader leads change is by directing it. If you think about it, this makes sense. After all, how a leader leads a situation is just as important (if not more important) than what the leader does when there is no situation. Think about it this way: Imagine a skydiver without a parachute. That person will soon die. But what if that person had a grand chute but forgot to deploy it? Would it not be equally as important (or even more so) for the skydiver to deploy his chute as it would be to avoid jumping out of the plane in the first place? The same thing is true of an organization. It is not enough for a leader to understand the situation – they must also understand how that situation can and should be changed. 

The book titled “Change is Good…You Go First” by Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein shares 21 ways to inspire change. In the context of change and management, one chapter that stood out for me was ‘Remove Barriers’. It mentions obstacles falling into one of four categories: (1) Outdated systems, (2) Outdated procedures, (3) Outdated people, and (4) A combination thereof. Sometimes, management wants to make changes, but you won’t go very far and fast if there are barriers to achieving these changes.

Effectiveness of Change

Change is necessary. It’s part of life. And the quality of our lives depends on our ability to embrace change and successfully ride its waves as they come. But not all changes are equal. Some changes are minor and unimportant. At the same time, some are major and important. Some change is evolutionary; it helps us grow into higher, more effective versions of ourselves. But some change is reactionary; it stops us from becoming the person we are trying to be. Sometimes this is good. Reactionary change can indicate that we are out of alignment or out of touch with our values and our true nature. But other times, this isn’t good. It can indicate that we have lost our way and need to go back to the drawing board. The most effective type of change is the evolutionary one.

The kind that moves us forward in a positive direction. The kind that enhances our lives rather than destroys them. Unfortunately, most change is reactionary, even if we don’t consciously recognize it as such. This is because we often resist change. After all, it forces us to confront our fears and our illusions. And facing our fears and our illusions can be painful. It causes anxiety and discomfort. That’s why most people resist change. They don’t consciously know that they are fighting it. But they are. You see, most people are controlled by their emotions, not by their logic. Change is an emotional process.

Conclusion

Change is a process. Sometimes it’s a gradual one, and sometimes it’s a drastic one. But it’s a process. And the process takes a lot of time, a lot of energy, and a lot of determination. So what are you waiting for?

But that’s not how change works at all. Change is a process. And the process of change is one in which we have some control. In other words, change is not something outside of us but something we do inside ourselves. Change is a result of our thinking and doing. And the first step towards embracing and riding the process of change is to understand what we are trying to change exactly. What is it that we want to change? Is it our circumstances? Our conditions? Our environment? Our future? Our past? Or perhaps it’s none of these things.

Types of changes

I believe there are only two types of changes in all of life; positive and negative. Positive changes make things better, and adverse changes make things worse. For example, getting older is a positive change because we get wiser, and losing a loved one is a negative change because we lose a part of our life. Let’s examine each of these types of changes in more detail and see how they apply to our personal and business lives.

Firstly, positive changes are those which make things better. If you are looking for an example of a positive change, think about the past 30-days. Despite the economy, there has been nothing but positive changes for my family and me. My health is better. My business is more profitable. The quality of our relationships is better. Our home is warmer and more inviting. OK, now let’s examine negative changes. These are changes that make things worse. When you think about the past 30-days, I’m sure you can quickly come up with examples of adverse changes in your life. Some of these changes may be big, and some of them may be small. But no matter how big or how small, every single one of them is a drag on your energy and resources. Negative changes often occur gradually. They creep up on us so subtly that most of the time, we aren’t even aware of them until they are well entrenched and tough to reverse. 

Changes Beyond Our Control

Sometimes in life, no matter how much we try to avoid it, something will still happen beyond our control. Maybe we are stuck with an annoying co-worker. Perhaps we are stuck with an irretrievably broken relationship. Maybe we will always be the odd man out in a group of friends. Maybe we will never marry the person we love. Perhaps we will never become wealthy. Maybe we will always be struggling to survive. The point is this: Life sometimes deals us unfair hands, and we end up with stuff we can’t do anything. The only thing we can do about these “unfair” events is to learn to cope with them as best we can. And the way we manage these kinds of situations is by making positive changes in our lives. Here are three ways we can do this:

First, we can change the way we think about the problem. In other words, we can begin to look at the situation as an “opportunity” instead of as a “burden.”

Next, we can change the way we feel about the problem. We can begin to see the problem as something we have some control over rather than something we have no control over.

And finally, we can change the way we act towards the problem. In other words, we can begin to deal with the situation so that it becomes a more negligible (and eventually non-existent) part of our lives.

Remember these three steps when you find yourself struggling to cope with some difficult situation in your life. Use them as a guide for initiating the process of change.

Causes of changes can be internal or external:

Internal causes: These are changes that occur within us due to our thinking and doing. They include our emotions, beliefs, desires, fears, values, vision, goals, dreams, plans, resolve, and so on. All of these are the stuff of which our lives are made. They are who we are, and they determine our success or failure. No matter what business problems we have or what challenges we face in life, these are the same problems we have to solve. If we don’t like or embrace these aspects of our being, we will fail no matter what external issues we try to solve.

External causes: These are changes that occur outside of us due to something happening to us (usually bad) or because of something happening in our environment. Events such as natural disasters, acts of God, man-made disasters, accidents, wars, economic recessions, droughts, floods, pestilence, fires, storms, or even, in today’s time, a pandemic. These events are not necessarily outside of our control but can negatively impact us if we let them. If we don’t take the proper actions to protect ourselves from these events, we can suffer losses that will be financially devastating, especially in business. External events can cause a loss of customers, income loss, physical location, or even bankruptcy.

What is needed in both cases (internal and external causes) is an alteration of our thinking and a change in our behavior. An alteration of our thinking occurs when we recognize that something is wrong and see things differently. We begin to see the problem as something we can solve instead of something that is necessarily beyond our control. This is crucial as to the mentioned steps in the previous point.

Conclusion

By understanding the types and causes of change, I hope this will better equip you in dealing with change. We will cover in the next post about the process of change.