Change is inevitable. A new president, a new CEO, a new manager and/or new technologies. New is often experienced as disruptive. Whether it was your choice or not, is not relevant. It will happen, deal with it. You probably are not in the situation/position to stop it.

So how to deal with change.

Accepting change is like going through the mourning phases. As the Kübler-Ross model for death and bereavement counseling, personal change and trauma. The 5 phases: Denial -> Anger -> Bargaining -> Depression -> Acceptance.

I’ll not go further on how to deal with a new president ... More interesting is how to deal with a new strategy due to new technologies, who challenge your company and the way you work. The cloud, social, mobile, Internet of Things, Virtual & Artificial Intelligence (will) have a huge impact on companies and society. We have to rethink on how to deal with an overload of information, new authorities and the way we work.

The adoption of change is not a straight line. Adopting change is the oil in the implementation process of a new strategy. The adoption of change is based on 3 elements.

Let’s zoom in on these 3 key success factors.

• Necessity
  Do you understand why? Do you see the added value to the organization? Is the behavior of the (new) management in line with the developments or initiative?
• Willingness
  Does the change effect you? Do you feel that the initiative/situation will improve your position or situation? Do you believe that you will become a better professional?
• Ability
  Do you see yourself in the new organization, structure, process, system? Will you be able to successfully contribute to the initiative (new organization/situation)?

Adoption is a critical success factor for execution of a new strategy and dealing with a new situation. To ‘quote’ Darwin: "It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change."

Good luck!!!!

Author: Peer Goudsmit