Responses to Unfamiliar

It is always interesting to note how others react to the unfamiliar including:

• caution
• acceptance
• waiting to see how others respond
• questioning
• disengaging
• eagerness
• curiosity
• exploring
• leaving
• getting information from the most knowledgeable person present
• stress
• excitement
• nonchalance
• rejection
• endorsement

None of these is right or wrong.  These are simply different ways of processing new things. Regardless of our enthusiasm, it's important for those of us introducing change, to be able to recognize and accommodate various understandable ways of processing the unfamiliar. 

What Might Have Been

What might have been, wasn't.  When we allow ourselves to quit replaying what if scenarios, we free ourselves to accept what is and what might be.

New Routes

Our familiar routines are comfortable and predictable.  But new routes can be invigorating.  My daily runs tend to follow the same terrain, expanded or contracted slightly, based upon available time and weather conditions.  When I alter my route, as I did recently, my sense of observation is heightened.  Small changes can greatly enhance our experiences.  However, we must be willing to change our course.

Embracing Change

It's often said that only a baby with a diaper that needs attention likes change.

 I love change!  So, it's been hard for me to understand why most people don't.  I look to the positive opportunities that change brings and embrace the chance for growth and improvement from status quo.  However, I've discovered that the element of loss of the familiar is what most people embrace, and thus react negatively to change.

To embrace change, we must look forward to the positive expected outcomes.

To deal with the loss of the familiar, we can celebrate the positives of what we've enjoyed with the current situation, by recognizing that those successes, impacts and memories provide a foundation for even greater successes, impacts and more positive memories.  And, in the best scenarios, we carry forward best practices into the changed environment.

Change is constant and we can embrace it while honoring what has been.

Even Good Change is Stressful

I recently took my car to my favorite tire place with the expectation of a 2 hour fix. It turned into a 24 hour fix when they discovered that I had two nails in my tire and they didn't have a low profile replacement tire in stock.  Their late night revelation that I'd be without my vehicle until after lunch caused Gar to offer his Suburban as my work day transportation.  A seemingly perfect solution, since the tire store is less than a mile from home and my office is six miles away - and I had meetings scheduled starting early morning and his waking hours are much later.

This was a yucky, rainy day, with forecasts of high water and rampant street flooding.  Driving a sports utility vehicle rather than a sporty convertible would seem to be the perfect safe option for me, with another SUV available for my guys at home.

Though I've been driving forever, driving a vehicle twice the size of mine is challenging, especially in the parking garage. Parking the Suburban in my normal small reserved space between a garage pillar and another large SUV wasn't an option.  Trekking through the garages in contiguous buildings finally yielded 4 unclaimed spaces, providing the opportunity to park this tank in a designated space without concern that I might hit another vehicle. (One of my friends who normally drives an SUV that is quite a bit smaller than Gar's recently ran into her assistant's car in a parking lot, so I was hyper-sensitive to the possibility. )

This experience reminded me that it's easy to forget that changing an element of a familiar process can cause great discomfort, stress and angst.   I've been driving forever and am quite adept at maneuvering my small car. However, when the vehicle size changed, so did everything else about the experience.

At work, we sometimes forget that changing programs is equivalent to asking an adept small car driver to parallel park an RV.  Proficiency at a task is often severely challenged even when we provide better equipment.

Patience, training and practice are necessary to reap the expected rewards when we change equipment, processes or programs.

Changing the Things We Can

Generally, only babies with a soiled diaper truly appreciate and readily accept change.  The rest of us need some time to adjust. 

It's often hard to accept the adjustment period others need to consider and embrace change once we have carefully developed a plan, after weighing alternatives.  Or when we want to introduce a program we've successfully used in another environment, but we're met with "that's not the way we do things here" - it's discouraging. 

Trying to introduce change has reinforced:

• Patience is a (sometimes painfully acquired) virtue.
• Just because it's clear to me, it may take require many "show and tell" opportunities for others to agree.
• Small victories deserve celebration.
• I can lead the way, but I can't make others do anything they don't choose or accept.  I can just keep leading.
• Though I trust until shown that a party is not trustworthy, others distrust until trustworthiness is proven.

Change - Uncomfortable or Invigorating

Change is intimidating for many and inspirational for some of us.  Addressing all of the implications of major change is important in order to productively engage all parties in maximizing the potential the change represents. 

We need to understand and communicate:

• the big picture - why the change is happening
• what will be different and what will remain the same
• the resources that are available to navigate different processes
• which aspects of change are causing stress and ways to mitigate the stress
• ways to speed the learning curve
• the importance of sharing successes
• productivity will decrease in the short-term

Gift of Change

This morning, I altered my normal walk route to be able to exercise and mail some letters.  Though the distance was the same, I hesitated for a moment.  I could walk my comfortable, normal route and mail the letters on the way to my first meeting.  After considering the possibilities, I opted to multi-task. The gifts of change were threefold:

• gorgeous eastern sunrise
• to-do list item completed before 8:00 a.m.
• acknowledgement that change doesn't have to be big to be high impact

Embracing, Accepting or Rejecting Change

I've long rejoiced in the fact that I embrace change.  This attitude has served me well through my life and career.  I now realize the difference between embracing and accepting change.  It's far easier to embrace change when you truly believe that things will be better as a result of the change.  Yes, things will be different.  But, when we know that the pain (of change) is worth the gain (of change), we can easily or readily or even hesitantly embrace the change.  This prospect of making things better motivates or sustains us.  

Willingness to change is also beneficial when the change is negative.  Though the dynamics can quickly change from aggressive adoption of positive change to the passive acquiescence of negative change, both patterns can work. With negative change, it's a longer, harder trajectory, but success can be achieved.

Another scenario is the rejection of change.  Oddly enough, the decision to reject change ultimately causes a very profound change.  In business, the refusal to change to accommodate a new environment results in a voluntary or involuntary change in employment.

Whether we embrace, accept or reject change, we must be ready to deal with our decision.

Quit Quitting

A recent conversation with a friend altered my way of thinking about change.  In business, we've been conditioned to expect and adapt to continuous change.  However, we need to assess whether we're involved in productive or non-productive change.  When change is non-productive, it can be the result of quitting an activity and beginning another without assessing what might have been improved in the first project.  I've resolved to quit quitting, without consciously assessing whether it's better to improve an existing option or embrace a new one.  But, I intend to stay very receptive to productive change.

Be Your Best Self

We are all asked to adapt and embrace change - sometimes more frequently than we are willing to accept.  However, when we are part of a large organization and change is thrust upon us, we need to remember that all of our actions impact our customers.  Though our competence with new systems may be minimal, our sincerity in working through the changes on their behalf will be the stories positively retold.

When I react as I'd like to be treated or know (from asking) that a customer would like to be treated, I am able to put my best self forward.

Finding the Benefit in a Negative Change

I've recently had to make a temporary and gargantuan technological change.  I live by my online calendar, email and contacts.  My office and home systems have been the same for too many years to mention. I was recently converted to an office system that is no longer commonly used.

Though I prefer the platform that we will ultimately migrate (back) to, I've decided to try to make lemonade from this current batch of lemons.

Some positive thoughts I've embraced include:

• learning something new keeps us on our toes
• we often ask our associates to embrace change that is as foreign to them as this technology regression is to us
• readily sharing tips and tools accelerates everyone's learning curve and can improve relationships
• we don't always appreciate what we have until we lose it
• I'm resilient
• there are always multiple ways to accomplish tasks
• learning occurs at every age and stage

Embracing Change

Many of my Sterling Bank colleagues have been engaged by Comerica as continuing employees.  Many others are in redundant positions and have found other opportunities, often with organizations that acknowledge their Sterling contributions by offering significant compensation packages.  Still others are in transition positions with Comerica and performing at high levels while waiting to find their next great position. 

Change is an inevitable in the corporate world, but also in general life.  Positively embracing change is a great way to acknowledge the present and welcome new, often better opportunities.  Until we are willing to let go of what is, we'll never be able to embrace what can be.

Influencer by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

In Influencer - The Power to Change Anything, the authors provide six sources of influence:

1. Make the undesirable desirable -  Most people are not good at predicting their own likes and dislikes, so sometimes simply getting them to try a new behavior will lead to enjoyment.  Another option is to make it a game with clear, frequent feedback to lead to a sense of accomplishment.
2. Surpass your limits - Relentlessly practice the essential elements of the skill.
3. Harness peer pressure - the approval and disapproval of those in our network can make an enormous difference, particularly the influence of opinion leaders.
4. Find strength in numbers - groups working together are often smarter than any extremely bright individual.
5. Design rewards and demand accountability - the rewards need to be gratifying to the recipient, closely tied to the behavior desired and delivered timely.
6. Change the environment - often this can be accomplished by making the invisible visible.  A hospital dramatically decreased the cost of the latex gloves being used, by highlighting for all to see, the cost of each glove option - $3 v. 25 cents.

Controlling the Controllables

As I've previously mentioned, Sterling Bank is being acquired by Comerica.  The merger is terrific for shareholders and customers.  Employees are understandably reacting to this major change in a variety of ways.  Many of us quickly embraced the change and others are struggling with the uncertainty. Even when there isn't a change as significant as this one, things are constantly changing in our personal and professional lives.  And there are always varying degrees of comfort in dealing with change.  Exercising higher degrees of flexibility and risk tolerance can smooth the transitions that change brings.  When we look beyond the comfort of our known environment we can begin to focus on controlling the controllables.

Things we can control include:

• attitude
• emotions
• approach
• reaction
• sense of humor
• patience
• productivity

It's reassuring to remember that there are many elements of change that are totally within our control.

Embrace Change

I've spent the past 5 years of my career with Sterling Bank.  It's an amazing organization with bright, dedicated associates who are all referred to as bankers.  We know that our goal is to help Texans prosper. 

Yesterday, we announced that Comerica is acquiring us.  There seems to be a terrific strategic, geographic and cultural fit in merging the organizations.  The deal still requires shareholder and regulatory approval and is expected to close mid-year, with the transition to the new organization completed by late 2011.

There are always many unknowns when we face a major change, but embracing the possibilities is the best way I've found to help myself and others through the change process.  Though I don't know what I'll be doing professionally this time next year, I know the journey will be exciting.