Changes go better when all feel involved

My 26-year- old Down syndrome son, Jason, is facing some significant changes in the supervision of his group home, which bothers him. To make matters much worse, we are in the process of selling the home he lived in for 15 years. He told us he “will cry when we sell the house because I hate change.”

Jason’s attitude toward change is the same as most of us, but most of us with “normal” intelligence are more subtle about our hostility to it. We desperately want things to stay the same. If we thought crying would help we might resort to it. Since we’re not going to stop change and crying is not great for self-esteem or impressing the boss, we are only going to find peace at work if we figure out how to come to terms with change.

We have to understand change is inevitable. Think about yourself 10 years ago. Your economic situation has probably changed. Your knowledge and understanding of life, work and family has changed. Relationships have changed. And your goals and dreams have probably changed. That makes for a very different you. Perhaps you will even embrace things that were once repugnant and reject things you once cherished. You probably celebrate your own changes. You have to give the same permission to change to your organization and to your leaders. Staying the same would signal a dying company and you can bet you’d complain about that, too!

I personally find the transcendent in the dynamism of our lives. The Creator did not give us a static world, but rather one that grows and challenges us anew. I am awestruck by the changes my 80-year-old mother has witnessed in her lifetime. I find blessing and excitement in that. Rather than bemoan change we should celebrate it and glory in it.

Still there is good change and bad change. Not all change is divinely inspired or inherently wise. Humans have made some bad choices along the way. Being alert for positive and negative change is essential. It is wrong for leaders to brand every person who does not embrace your proposal as a foot-dragger. Some employees may be perfectly comfortable with the concept, but they may just think your change is bad or ill-advised. And it might be.

On the other hand, if an employee has been an obstacle to the last 10 ideas for change, he probably is foot-dragger and needs to examine why he is so uncomfortable.

An employee should not be blocking all change, but he doesn’t have to go along with every idea leadership has either. Every employee in a healthy organization should be respected enough to make independent decisions and express their thoughts. A mature organization should respect that change issues don’t have to be yes/no propositions.

Recently, a company asked me how it should approach dramatic change. I told them this:

“Make your purpose, vision and mission crystal clear and simple to grasp.

“Convince people there must be a change by showing them opportunities.

“ Enlist people in your effort by seeking input on specifics of the change.

“ Once you decide on your direction do not waver.

“ Communicate, communicate and communicate.