Handling Non-stop Changes — A Personal
Experience
By Angie Kwok, MSW
For the past decade, I have been focusing part of my personal
and professional development in learning strategies to manage
nonstop organizational changes, recognizing these skills will
be the essential survival skills in our everchanging work environment.
In my learning journey, I came across the writings of William
Bridges and subsequently attended the transition management program
offered by Bridges in 1993. Since then, I have been using his
transition framework to assist me to manage the many restructuring
and reshaping of services at my workplace. In this article, I
will summarize some of my learning and experience, hoping that
this sharing will create a dialogue among all of us to develop
proactive approaches in handling the unrelenting tidal waves of
change in our workplace.
One of the key lessons I learned from Bridges is the importance
of understanding the psychological and emotional aspects of changes.
Bridge’s framework talks about three phases of psychological
transition one must go through in order to be able to handle changes
successfully. The first phase of the transition process is the
“Ending” and the most crucial area for all
of us to address if we would like to be able to move forward to
meet the brave new world. Bridges calls this the “letting
go” phase. The ability to acknowledge the loss and
finding ways of letting go of the status quo helps us to clear
our mindset in developing new visions and practices.
The second phase of the transition process is the “Neutral
Zone”. Bridges equates this phase with the biblical
story of Moses leading his people out of Egypt, that they must
endure a time of wilderness and uncertainty before they can reach
the Promised Land. The Neutral Zone is the time of chaos and confusion
for many people, as new structures are still not firmly established.
I used to find this phase challenging until I learned new ways
of gaining a sense of control of this time of chaos. One of my
key discoveries that seem to work for me is to follow the ancient
Chinese advice that says, “when there is chaos, seize
the opportunity to advance”. I heard this saying as
a child thousands of time, but it never took hold until I spent
more time reading about transition and change. The Neutral Zone
could be an opportunity for new ventures and practices. As new
structures have not emerged, there is room for creativity , new
ideas and new contributions for us to make.
Over the past years, I have learned to do the following in preparing
myself to navigate through the Neutral Zone:
- Anticipate changes. I have learned that spending time to understand
the trends in services delivery and funding structure is extremely
important. It gives me more time to reflect and prepare for
what needs to be done when the changes arrive.
- Keep up with the best practices in our field. Information
on best practices armors us with knowledge to frame our interventions.
It also helps us to articulate what is important and effective
in our practice area. I found this knowledge base is crucial
in assisting my management team in understanding and accepting
the rationale of the social work intervention.
- Take stock of one's assets. It is important for us to have
a clear picture what we have to offer to our workplace in the
time of change. We seldom allow ourselves to reflect on our
talents, natural abilities and strenths, or spend time to envision
how our assts can be used beyond our existing job description.
A greater awareness of our assets enables us to see new possibilities,
thus providing a greater sense of self-resiliency and control
in time of chaos.
- Develop an entrepreneurial spirit. The entrepreneurial spirit
is the mindset and approach that help us to maintain a positive
focus instead of feeling helpless and victimized. In the past
years, I have used this approach to address some of the challenges
at work. For example, when our department was short of money
to enable everyone to attend the workshop offered by William
Bridges, we proposed to the Management that we would organize
a workshop in Vancouver and open it to other agencies and community
partners. Subsequently, all our staff were able to attend the
workshop for free as the workshop brought us sufficient funds
to cover the cost. The entrepreneur spirit encourages us to
survey unmet needs in the workplace and identify opportunities
for our contributions. It gives us the energies to market our
strengths and develop proactive approaches to address
issues and challenges.
- Build a support network for oneself. A strong support system
helps us to maintain positive focus. In the past years, I
have developed a mental list of colleagues and friends that
I could call upon for support. I would contact different individuals
based on whether I need someone to challenge my thought, or
for encouragement, or for someone to have a good laugh with
to lessen the tensions and stresses.
The final phase of transition process is the “New
Beginning”. This is time when we start to feel
we have new energies and new visions. We no longer mourn the
old way, and we are eager to move forward to forge new plans.
A “New Beginning” will emerge when we can successfully
manage the Ending and the Neutral Zone of transitions.
As non-stop changes have become a way of life in our workplace,
I find myself constantly referring back to the transition training
and relying on my network for encouragement and support. My association
with the Social Workers in Health Society of BC has enabled me
to expand my circle of support. It is my belief that the synergy
of our collective efforts will enable us to ride the wave of changes
and create new possibilities for social workers to make contributions.
