Businesses are experiencing rapid change. To keep current, you must engage with your job and company’s product or service. Often this means reviewing competitor brands, evaluating new technology and or increasing skills. According to BOMI international, adapting to change has become a crucial responsibility for supervisors and employees alike. “If you don’t keep up with the times, you won’t be of value in your organization” say’s Tonda Williams of Omni Data Technology.

Author of New Directions for Organization Theory, Jeffrey Pfeffer identified one of the significant challenges facing organizations back in the late 1990’s the problems organizations had with change. He defined this era as the "elimination of inertia." He described this era as the organization's inability to change as fast as the environment. Granted Pfeffer defined the period before the technological evolution (before personal computers & the internet). Therefore, his prediction did not include the effects of technology in the workplace.

Of course, we can blame technology, but, adapting to change has been a thorn in society’s side. This effect has trickled down into the business and home. A perfect example is the changes that have occurred in your very own neighborhood. Where there once was a space filled with trees, there is now apartment complexes, shopping centers, and fast food restaurant. Checkout counters with cashiers at your local supermarket have been replaced with self-checkout machines. The reality is, if you don’t learn how to adapt to change, you will have to wait on long lines to pay for groceries. The quicker you adjust, the better off you’ll be. However, adaptability requires learning something new. And what most people are afraid to say out loud is that “they don’t want to change, they don’t want to learn something new. The old way works just fine!”

The “stagnant to change” attitude has been living in the organizational environment. For a while now, organizations have succumbed to the old rhetoric "if it’s not broke don’t fix it." However, with markets changing, customer demands increasing, for companies to survive they must implement change and at rapid rates. What does this mean for the supervisor/employee? This means that leaders and employees must meet the challenge or be replaced. The best option is to forecast change on the horizon and meet its requirement. In other words, PLAN ON SOME CHANGE OCCURRING in your workplace. Change is inevitable

When you change you are learning something new? Learning is a method to incorporate a business tool or lifestyle change. Have you ever had to take a detour because of road work to discover a new way of getting to your destination? You never knew this route existed before and you would have probably never found it if you hadn’t been re-directed. Now let me ask you a question when you were redirected off your route, did you pull over and wait for the road-work to finish before you continued? Or did you proceed to the guided route with caution?

Like a road detour, organizations are guided off a familiar path and to stay relevant in business, they must pave the way on uncharted territory. Successful organizations construct new roads, explore new visions. As a supervisor or employee, you must take specific steps to assist with the change or as I like to call it the “learning process.” Here are the steps:

1. Learn something new every day.: Learning is a habit. It could be a new word, idea, or something you have an interest in like art, wine, automobiles. Technology is a wonderful thing in that you can google something and get a plethora of information. Pick a subject or topic and read about it.

2. Learn what’s new in your organizational field.: Create a Google account, and set-up Google alerts to send you an email when a new article hits the internet in your field. I have my google alerts set for leadership, emotional intelligence, etc. Please read http://insightfuldevelopment.com/how-set-google-alerts-stay-current-industry-news-web-action/ for more info. I receive an email with a list of articles posted about that topic. I sort through them and read what attracts my interest. I also share them on my social media accounts as well. Sharing is caring.

3. Become attentive to organizational shifts.: These shifts include changes in personnel, increase or decrease in sales or production, changes in internal systems that affect your job and the tasks of others around you.

4. Ask questions about what’s happening: You may want to schedule a meeting with your supervisor on the things you’ve been noticing. Suggest or offer your assistance to help in the transition. What better way to get the heads up. In other words, be in the know.

5. Become mindful of external shifts in the market: For example, if a federal regulation has mandated a change importing of all items from China, and a widget to help build your product comes from China, if you’re in R&D, this should not come as a shock when your supervisor asks you to investigate your supplier’s competition in different locations across the globe. You should have already started researching and developing a list.

6. Take and use training if offered: If your organization offers training, take the opportunity to gain increased knowledge on the up & coming changes.When you return from training, apply what you learned immediately. Learning occurs when you apply action to information you retained.

7. If training is not offered, find training offsite: If your organization has not co-signed to training it may be best to research the type of change, as well as some of the methods used to implement the change then teach others. Again, my favorite motto is “Sharing is caring”. These changes are not going to take full effect if your peers don’t buy-in to it as well. You maybe the voice that’s needed to start the productive wheels turning.

8. Don’t fall into the gossiping pool: If you don’t know what’s going on, or if you do, do not talk about it with other employees not unless your supervisor has made you in charge of communicating the change. In other words, don’t stir up the rumor mill. Wait for leadership to make the announcement.

The steps are uncomfortable to process at first. However, you will find that the more you implement the steps and understand that change is a necessary occurrence for success, you will become flexible and open toward change. You will be confident that you can execute any change that comes your way.

If you have questions on how to be a change agent, please send me an email at info@tywanawilliams.com.