Socrates once said, ‘The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.’
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Since the beginning of time change has been a part of humanity, for good, bad or indifferent…
What we fail to understand is that regardless of our personal or professional situation change will inevitably occur.
However when there is change, for example in the workplace, many of us will become stressed, angry, welcoming, happy, depressed and a host of other emotions.
Why?
Plain and simple, many of us do not like change of any kind even though change occurs every day.
Change is often necessary and will usually bring with it new ideas and opportunities.
To be sustainable in today’s competitive marketplace, where the world has become smaller with the advent of social media, change must also be meaningful and important to people if they are to embrace change(s).
Many ‘change agents’ are excellent at ensuring people understand their vision, which will enable them to work towards a common goal or purpose.
Bernie Brooks, former Myer CEO, was such a person.
Throughout his tenure Bernie Brooks took the posture of instilling key positive change elements in the organisation.
These positive changes included long-term outlooks/thinking, making decisive decisions, getting to know the people who worked for him from the bottom up, being a roll-up-your-sleeves manager who worked for his staff thereby gaining their respect and providing ample staff training, which led to looking after Myer customers.
Establishing relationships with the person or people most affected by the change is more credible as well as trustworthy in its change process.
Trust also works in situations faced in other society arenas such as with drug and alcohol users who are looking to change their habits by quitting such behaviours.
Former ‘addicts’ for example, may be some of the best ‘agents of change’ to those who are trying to stop and could use the support of a former ‘user’ to assist them in instituting that change process.
In addition to trust other key elements of empathy, social status and comradery will most certainly assist change agents in supporting those seeking assistance.
In the case of Bernie Brooks as a change agent, elements such as; enthusiastic, passionate, inspiring, strong, engaging, dynamic and proactive are just a few of the attributes that can be associated with the changes that took place under his leadership.
In regards to a former addict who may be a focal person to an addict wanting to quit, those attributes of understanding the environment, social connections, ability to act as a responsible citizen and working in cooperation with others would no doubt be factors in facilitating behavioural/habitual changes.
Change agents also work in other ways, not necessarily in the workplace or community services as exampled.
Change agents can be described as opinion leaders.
In the word-of-mouth (WOM) context an ‘opinion leader’ informally influences the actions or attitudes of others.
Opinion leaders could spread information starting within their own circles.
Information may then continue to spread to other circles and so on, as effective opinion leaders can easily create ‘instant change’ for an organisation in this way.
Opinion leaders, as change agents, may also be regarded to be more credible, especially if that person is a friend, family member or acquaintance (or even a colleague within the workplace).
Personally, as a former Executive Manager, I have had to facilitate change in the workplace on a few occasions.
The process was never easy.
During some situations, I have employed counsellors to assist those who struggled with the organisational change.
I also hired employment agencies to assist those who may have required support with resumes or finding other employment and re-deployed others to jobs within the organisation.
In all cases I provided a nurturing and empathetic presence to ensure my teams knew I was continually looking after their mental health and wellbeing through the change process.
As this article alluded to at the onset, change occurs daily in our lives through various forms, some of which have been highlighted.
However it should be noted in order to be successful personally, professionally or otherwise, adaptation to change is as Socrates stated, one’s ability of not fighting the old but rather embracing the new.
Anthony Perrone is college counsellor at Trinity Anglican College. The views expressed are Dr Perrone's and not necessarily those of Trinity Anglican College.