We had great plans about our move.
We had been planning for a good four months.
But if you know anything about life, you know that it never goes to plan. Within weeks of our moving date, a very close friend got very ill and we prioritised being there for her and her family as she died. The plans could wait.
Then, as we were actually moving, I got the flu, perhaps not surprisingly.
As a result, the first days, now weeks in our new home by the beach on the Mornington Peninsula didn’t look anything like we planned.
(That’s not to say that we shouldn’t plan. On the contrary.)
Change is almost paradoxical in what it needs from us:
- We need to prepare for it
- We also need to roll with whatever comes.
Both of those things are essential in helping us manage change.
On top of the flu (which I then shared with my daughter Annabel), our new address is not quite home yet, I don’t know my way around, I don’t know the best place to buy good bread yet, and the afternoon traffic is a complete (inconvenient) surprise.
But yesterday I went in search of something, and I came across a fabulous butcher and a deli (yes, food is definitely a focus in our house!). And just like that, my day was made. Such a small thing, but it was just what I needed to get some reassurance, some sense that things will slowly move in the right direction, and this change will begin to feel familiar and comfortable. Maybe not as soon as I hoped, or in the way that I hoped, but it will.
I’m rolling with it.
I’ve been around change in workplaces a great deal – enough to know that when things don’t go to plan (and they never do!) it can be really challenging.
I do a lot of work with teams and leaders around how to steer the ship of change, and I know the first thing we need to do, the tiniest yet very important thing, is an emotional shift.
It can look like identifying the smallest sign that things can and will work out (can you find a “deli”?). Once we trust that, we can roll with the change again, and play an active part in steering things back in the right direction.
So, if you’re going through some kind of change now, what’s one thing that you can identify that can help you restore your confidence in your decisions and the process?
Speaking of change, haven’t we all seen plenty of it these past few years. One of them has been about how the nature of connection has changed. We all value it more, while we do less of it. I feel inspired to organise one or a series of in-person events that challenge the norm of networking and help us grow our skills and genuinely connect with other leaders. But I need your help figuring out what that might look like. This 5-mins survey is my ask for your help. Fill it in to let me know your thoughts about in-person events.
