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From Resistance to Resilience: How to Get Better at Change · Unspoken Career Truths

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  Welcome to Unspoken Career Truths.
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  I'm Lauren Levac Gilbert. And I'm Cara Wood.
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  And we're here to be the coworkers you can trust.
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  In just 10 minutes, we'll cover the strategies you need, the
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  mistakes to avoid, and the insider secrets no one tells you
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  so you can show up with confidence at work.
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  Hey, Lauren. Hey, Cara.
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  You know, we're at fall where the leaves are changing and it's
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  getting colder. And it's getting.
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  Darker I know there's so much change and that is the theme of
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  our podcast today is that change is the only constant.
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  What's that? But I want to talk especially
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  about how it can impact you at work and how it can impact the
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  culture of where you work. Because I think that often times
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  there are these changes that happen that feel destabilizing
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  or feel like they've shifted so much of your office place that
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  it takes a lot of time for folks to like recuperate, recover.
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  What's your what's your least favorite kind of change at the
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  office? Logan more favorite I guess more
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  favorite if you have a favorite. I would say my least favorite
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  kind of change is when my leadership changes.
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  And the reason for that is because I feel like you kind of
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  get into a groove, You know how to work with your manager, they
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  know you, they know your work. And so I just find that that
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  kind of change just takes a whole another level of effort
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  and time, and it's just like getting in a new groove with
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  someone. So I find that to be the hardest
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  kind of change, but I also know that it's necessary.
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  Yeah, I, I, I totally understand where you're coming from.
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  What mine is actually when we, we get like a new software, I
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  'cause it, and I think it's a similar thing where you know,
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  you have all your shortcuts or you like know what to expect
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  from something and then suddenly you're using some new interface.
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  I like, I hate getting a new phone for that reason.
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  It just it's like. It's so funny to say that, Cara,
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  because if I think about the hardest change I ever had in my
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  entire career, it was when I went from Windows to Mac.
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  I went to a company and they gave me a Mac and I hadn't used
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  Mac and I felt like an idiot. I could not.
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  I was slow. I couldn't get anything to work.
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  We also moved from Microsoft to Google, like, and I was like, Oh
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  my God, what is this? That was a really, really hard
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  change for me. So I do agree with you on.
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  That yeah, and I mean, I think that's like the point is that
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  like change, you know, again, it's new bosses, it's new
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  projects, it's new equipment, it's new leadership.
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  It's when you move into a new role, it's when your office
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  moves, like your office moves and your entire daily schedule
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  could change or you might shift from working from home or not
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  working from home. And that's a new adjustment.
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  One of the most valuable things that I ever did to sort of
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  change my understanding around change was this group activity
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  where we were all asked to kind of identify with how we felt
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  about change, which was the first time, I guess maybe that I
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  both reflected on how I felt about change, but also and the
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  the both the emotion behind it and my approach to it.
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  So I'll just walk you through the four quadrants that were
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  sort of identified. And then I would love to hear
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  where you land. Yeah.
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  And it's basically like, OK, you hate change and you avoid it and
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  kind of deny it's happening for as long as possible.
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  You. Not a great way to live your
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  life, but hey. There is so many people that
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  this is the the feeling or maybe change just makes you
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  uncomfortable because you know, there's an adjustment period and
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  your go to reaction is actually just just to try to control and
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  manage what you can so that you'll have some input on that
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  discomfort that you're feeling something new.
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  Or you kind of are resigned because you know that change is
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  the only consonant, but you just tolerate it as is necessary to
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  wear like hold your hold your breath and, you know, plow
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  through. Or you're actually someone who's
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  like energized and you seek it out.
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  And in a lot of cases, this is that person who loves change.
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  And the people around that, like, they almost force other
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  people around them to like, go through change.
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  I think I sit between tolerate it as a necessary chore and
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  embrace and seek it. And the reason I say that is
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  because I definitely like have had enough experience in my
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  career of change that I've like tolerated it.
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  And I know that it's necessary, but depending on what that
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  change is, I really embrace it and seek it.
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  And the reason I say that is like, for example, in my
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  industry right now, AI is like completely disrupting
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  everything. And I actually think that's a
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  cool change. And I'm super excited.
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  And I like want to see it change and I want to understand it and
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  I want to be at the forefront of it.
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  So that's why I think I skate between those two.
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  How about you? What's funny is I feel like you
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  might actually be in this weird transition because I found
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  myself in the very small group of people who freaking love
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  change. But.
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  What do we just love? Change Cara.
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  I know, I love it. But what we all discovered,
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  which was mind blowing, and then we were told that this was
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  normal, is that we were all people who had just gone through
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  a ton of change. So it wasn't that we initially,
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  Yeah. I've gone through so much
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  change. Yeah, yeah, 'cause I.
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  Don't think I would have actually, sorry, I didn't mean
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  to cut you off. I think that's like a really
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  interesting perspective because I would have say early on in my
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  career I was in the try to control and manage it phase.
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  But I seriously like orgs that I've been at have just had so
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  much change that I'm just, it's like, Oh yeah, it's cool.
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  It's happening. Here we go. 100% And so I say to
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  anyone out there who just likes it, is resigned to it, totally
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  hates it and avoids it and chooses, I mean, you can try
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  their best to avoid change and then you will not get any better
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  at it. But if you want to join our
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  group, just suffer through a lot of change and you will suddenly
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  become energized by it. I also think it's important to
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  call out that humans in general usually don't like change.
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  Like we're we were not built to like change, right?
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  Like hunters and gatherers, like think like way back to the
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  beginning, right? Like you were supposed to like
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  have a role. You were supposed to anticipate
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  what was coming. Like change is like really,
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  really difficult as humans like think about like fight or flight
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  and all the instincts that we already have ingrained in us.
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  So I just say that for people who like are in the avoid and
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  deny or like really, really hate change, know that like it is not
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  ingrained in us as he as humans to be comfortable with it. 100%
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  like in change, no matter what, even if you are someone who
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  embraces and loves it, you're still actually going through
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  those same physical emotions of like being challenged by it.
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  It's just you have neural pathways that are telling you,
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  hey, there's optimism on the other side.
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  I've been through and survived this.
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  Whereas if you haven't yet or you've had really bad
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  experiences, I won't even say that because it's just basically
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  like, if you've been through change enough and you've
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  survived it, then you sort of can like learn to get around it.
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  So, but I think it's really important to remember that
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  everyone experiences change differently.
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  And so if you're on a team, just assume that there are people who
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  have that wide range of roles and there might be someone who's
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  moving faster than you want with the change, and there might be
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  someone who doesn't even want to like acknowledge the changes
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  happening for as long as possible.
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  I have been on teams that we actually chart out where people
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  are going to, how people are going to react to change.
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  And it really helps, like plan the project.
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  Like how long should this project take?
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  Sometimes it should take longer just because the team needs that
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  time to adjust, not because the project itself is going to take
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  that long. I think that's important to know
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  also, like when a big announcement is happening or
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  like, as if you are a leader, like knowing that a change is
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  coming, Like how do you handle each person individually on your
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  team or how do you make them feel comfortable with it?
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  That's just a good thing to know, yeah.
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  And I'll just say the other framework, because I love
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  frameworks that I'm really helpful is like all about how
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  teams or groups adapt to change. So if folks have heard, it's
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  sort of the storming, norming, forming and performing.
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  So change happens, there's some storming, people need time to
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  adjust. People are going to do this at
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  different cycles of time. And then you start to hit a
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  normalcy where you're actually like, OK, everyone sort of knows
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  what the norms are. And then you can sort of form
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  what your groups are going to be, what your going to be.
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  And then finally you got to a perform stage.
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  Now it's really tough because think of every change.
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  So you could actually go through waves of this where something
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  changes like you mentioned AI and then maybe you got a new
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  boss and like those two things can compound.
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  So I, again, I think it's really important for folks to kind of
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  notice, hey, what change am I reacting to and how has that
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  changed me and how might it change the folks around me.
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  And I also think you should reflect like as you're going
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  through change, like what was your initial reaction?
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  How did you feel? Because then the next time that
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  change happens, you can acknowledge it and then move
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  forward. Like for me, when any change
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  happens, I still have a reaction to your point, Cara, like, but I
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  know I'm going to have a reaction.
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  I might need an emotional moment.
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  I take a break and then I come back to it.
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  So I know myself and how I react to change.
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  And that's really important for each of you to understand from
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  your perspective as well. Yeah, and I feel like just
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  assuming that there's like a likelihood of of change
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  happening in people's lives like in every.
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  Aspect. Yeah, because there's other
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  unseen changes that could be happening outside of the scope
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  of work that also are impacting someone's day-to-day and then
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  add or compound the change that you're used to.
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  So I think for takeaways, like really it is just kind of accept
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  the fact as much as you can that change is inevitable and notice
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  or kind of understand where you are in the spectrum and
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  understand that there's an emotional component that you and
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  everyone else on your team is going to have and paste that
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  into the projects and also into your expectations.
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  Because even if you're someone who loves change, the worst
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  thing you can do is pressure and force everyone else to adopt it,
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  like adopt it at your speed. You actually need to all work
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  cohesively. So understanding where people
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  are at with their change needs is really important to get to
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  that performing stage where you're all In Sync and.
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  That's a wrap. Thanks for joining us on
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  Unspoken Career Truths. Don't forget to follow us on
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