According to the dictionary, the definition of change is to “exchange one thing for another thing, especially of a similar type” or “to make/become different…”
A friend of mine’s life was turned upside down in the last few weeks, personally and also professionally. The way she is dealing with everything fascinates me and also made me think about it a little bit more.
Change
I wanted to learn from her situation as much as possible. Hands on heart – and let’s be honest here – have you never felt anxious when change presented itself on the horizon? A new boss, new structure, new procedures or even just moving desks in the office.
And not to mention those mornings when you have to use a different locker in the gym’s changing room instead of the usual one. Ridiculous, isn’t it?
We are all victims of routine.It is far too comfortable to just keep doing the same thing over and over again, drifting away from putting ourselves through avoidable challenges.
In essence, being happy fools.
Generally, and certainly from a business point of view, we forget how important change is for any organisation. Without it, businesses would possibly lose their competitive side.
Unknown
The fact is we should all embrace change, push ourselves to the unknown and to the uncomfortable. A successful business can see when something is not working, recognise the need for change early and will even embrace change.
Giant corporations make mistakes and miss adapting to new circumstances. Take Nokia for example. The former communications giant – who was aware of all the changes going around it – had the ideas to keep up with its competitors. However, it was indecisive and not committed enough to transform that awareness into practice. Its rivals took advantage and the rest is history, quite literally for the Finnish phone maker.
Incredible examples show that changing direction brings you success.
My favourite is the story of Avon and their beginnings back in 1886, when David H McConnell walked miles every day, ringing doorbells trying to sell books. He soon realised the majority of his customers were female and got more excited about the perfume samples he was giving out with the books than the books themselves. He made that move and set up The California Perfume Company (rebranded to Avon about 40 years later). In those years there were limited options for women gaining employment and he also knew the wives stayed at home while the husbands were working, so he recruited women only to sell his products.
Change based on observation and decisiveness led to an internationally renowned company being born, famous in over 140 countries and still going strong.
Without change, we’d cease the learn, even exist. And every time we learn a new skill or event or just adapt to one, we are smarter than we were the day before. Change has also got the power to remind us that anything is possible and give us flexibility to deal with unexpected situations.
Forget resistance and let’s feel the butterflies inside, allow change to bring us opportunities and new choices for happiness.
Krisztina Szigeti is an Account Manager and creative thinker at Happy Creative, a strategic marketing and branding agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire.
