How we manage ourselves in change

What does ‘be the change’ really mean?

Change is often seen as binary – you’re either changing or staying the same, your organisation is either running a change/transformation programme or it is static. 

In this framing, you’re either part of ‘the’ change, or you’re not.

That fails spectacularly to capture that there is no single ‘change’. 

And it presents change as a set point to reach, at which point we stop. 

Change is an integral part of our everyday lives. And it is complex, constantly evolving and distinctly not binary.

Change is:

• tangible yet invisible

• both emotional and rational

• within us and outside of us

• often both enforced upon us and an opportunity

• at once individual and systemic and global.

Let me give you some examples...

Where do you work?

The movement from a tradition time/location model to remote working and hybrid (people mixing up working from is often described as 'a change''.

Many organisations and individuals found themselves in an enforced change due to government decisions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the point, this ‘change’ could be classified as:

• tangible (we could see it, feel it, hear it and it was measured and reported on)
• rational (epidemiologically sensible, reducing transmission risks)
• outside of us (we weren’t alone, everyone was doing it)
• enforced upon us (Governments and organisations mandated it)
• systematic and global (outside of health and essential (food etc) supply chains, it was across most industries in many countries).

But in fact, it was also evolving and diversifying. Was already on the way to becoming much more than a temporary, rational, mandated and (time) limited shift.

As a result of Covid, it became a heightened opportunity for an individualized review.

No longer just about workplace, it become an opportunity for many of us to review the place of work within our lives, the place of work, the when, how and why of work.

This was initially largely invisible, an emotional reflection during and after the worst of the pandemic vortex.

For many, the pandemic enabled us to tap into our inner aspirations and mull over our disappointments and dissatisfactions, to think long-term about what work means to us and how we want our lives to be lived.

For many, the pandemic enabled us to tap into our inner aspirations and mull over our disappointments and dissatisfactions, to think long-term about what work means to us and how we want our lives to be lived.

That this coincided with many of us deeply confronting two pre-existing global realities at the same time is not insignificant…

…our lack of control over, and difficulty in taking collaborative, effective action about climate and biodiversity damage and infectious disease management.

And while each individual came to their own conclusions about the place of work in our lives, and when and where we would work (based on context, opportunity, limitations, personalities etc)…

…the collective impact of a multiplicity of individual changes is systemic adaptation.

Platforms, apps, technology – have all adapted, seized market opportunities, created more seamless and diverse ways  to work differently.

Organisations have (often under duress) evaluated their policies, practices and leadership styles, to determine what aspects of the place, pace and timing of work is critical to their mission and purpose, and what is not.

They’ve considered, or been firmly told by their people, that synchronicity and asynchronicity are both fundamental facets of meaningful and productive work.

And some organisations have consciously embraced the added benefits.

Or, they have instead retreated to their post-pandemic approaches, with the ‘fingers crossed’ notion that it will all ‘return to normal’ if they just hold the line.

How healthy and safe are we?

Just as the notion of ‘workplace’ has fundamentally and globally shifted, so too have our perceptions of disease security.

Now that a global pandemic has happened (and within our lifetime rather than 100 years ago in what many view as ‘history’), we can no longer rely on ‘fingers crossed’. [Note: In my view the Covid-19 pandemic is still ‘happening’]

When the communities of experts globally tell us ‘There will be another pandemic, and it may well be worse’ – we need to listen.

We know now the difficulty and disregard of enforced changes, implemented at pace, in experiment mode.

Plastered-together solutions, and approaches that just about worked, often despite the systems designed to structure and enable social equity and welfare.

We’ve witnessed the emotional toll, the family disruption and sacrifice, the impact on workers and workforces, the global tragedy of uneven distribution of vaccines and oxygen.

We’ve been shown the reality of wealth and influence-driven survival statistics.

The long-term health, health outcome and health workforce impacts are playing out daily.

And we’ve seen what happens when change like this is positioned, presented and experienced as binary.

Vaccines, mask-wearing, lockdowns, border closures, essential work classifications, furloughs, social welfare support, industry rescue packages.

It appears that you’re either for them or against them.

Climate of binary conversations

But a binary view is far too simplistic, it’s a static view (point in time), its unjustly homogenic, it’s primarily a global north lens. And its negative and limiting.

The same could absolutely be said for the climate debate.

Many people would agree that humans have had an impact on the biodiversity and climate of the planet.

Where people often seem to disagree is when the actions or solutions are presented as binary, inducing people to side with specific ‘factions’ – and making it about ‘them’ and ‘us’.

But like nothing else on earth, there is no them and us, no ‘other’, in the race to regenerate and maintain the planet for future generations.

And while everyone will come to their own conclusions about the urgency, the actions, the extent of immediate sacrifice for long-term good…

…the collective impact of a multiplicity of individual changes will be systemic adaptation.

People, animals, plants, platforms, apps, technology – will adapt, seize market opportunities, create more seamless and diverse ways to live differently.

While individual decision-making and effective collective action may not be controllable, they can be:

• influenced (with factual information that supports informed decision-making)
• enabled (with expansive practices that invite ideas, innovation and regeneration)
• invested in (with research, operational planning, global partnerships, funding)
• faced up to (with the calm public debates that build awareness and social license).

Perhaps if we were more focused on being part of a shift in approach to influence, enable, invest and come to terms with these issues, we would achieve more fundamental movements in the same general direction.

Listen to the humans at work podcasts to hear other humans share their work and life stories… on apple, spotify and google, or at http://www.humansatwork.org/podcast

Comment with your ideas for supporting and enabling collective reflection, independent decision-making and effective adaptation in the community page - click here to access.

Or message me directly if you’d like to appear on the podcast as a guest!

Read 'Why running and baking competitions make for greater resilience' with Enver Samuel in this next blog

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