All of us go through change. For some, it is easier to manage it. For others, they take time. The question is not - which is right and which is wrong. But.......!!! Well, why don't we come back to this point later?
So...to drive my point..let me introduce Gowry to you.
Gowry has always been a chirpy,bubbling with energy and take life as it comes type. She was brought up by her working mother who is equally bindass. She has witnessed her parents broken marriage. But, that has never affected her outlook towards life as it taught her to count her blessings whenever she goes through a difficult phase in life.
She hates to judge and be judged. She believes nobody is perfect. So is she. She looks at every phase and incident of her life as a learning. For her, world and life is much larger than doing the chorus all the time inside the four walls of the house. She doesn't believe in destiny. Hence, she does'nt fit in the typical "go with the flow" stereo type woman who gets arrested in the expectation trap. She is a dreamer. She enjoys all the small things in life. She never compares herself with others as she thinks, everyone is unique. She has never felt "jealous" about anyone.
And tries to keep her smile all the time.
And her biggest dream is to make a positive difference to atleast a few people apart from her family. Hence, she works on realizing this dream whenever possible.
In her 30 years of revolving around the sun, she has not wasted her life by just transforming oxygen to carbondioxide. But, balanced the ups and downs of life pretty well and realized many of her dreams in her own way - family, career, work on social cause, continue her talent showcase in music,learnt cooking, cleans the house (to an extent!) etc etc.
But, then she realizes...people who are not just tresspassers, but, who travel with her in this journey have never travelled in the same path that she has travelled always. They seek her to change her path and take their path. So, the point here is....
Does she need to change her path completely? Is it possible to mix their path and her path?
Now...coming back to our unfinished question.
Is Change Management about managing change in the means and ways you are comfortable in managing it? OR Changing yourself completely to manage the change because that is what is expected of you?
To all the women out there - this Gowry is you and me!
Happy Women's day! Celebrate womenhood! :) :) :)
Let me attempt to answer your big question on Women's day. Thanks a lot for the wishes and Happy Women's day to you too Veena.
ReplyDeleteManaging change is definitely something that all of us have to deal with whether we like it or not. Sometimes it is easy and then there are times when it very very very haaaa I can't stress enough on how very difficult it can be at times.
1. Should one manage change in a comfortable manner?
This might be easy if the situation does not demand stepping out of your "comfort zone". This probably pertains to those situations that comes naturally to us.
2. Should one change completely to manage the change? There is also a component of meeting others' expectation as per your question. This involves some steps
Step 1: Do I want to change? Yes/No 2. Is the change necessary? Yes/No 3. How is it going to help me? Reasons 4. Other's expectation - Not always a criterion if the change is self imposed but if change is external(others, life situation,) then to what extent are those other people important to me... if they mean something to me... then it might be worthwhile to change in the sense the whole stepping out of "comfort zone" kind of change which is difficult but not impossible.
This is my view about change and managing change. In short,I'd say it depends on the person, the situation and how important it is to accept and manage change at that point in time. Let me know what you think.
Very well said Divs...i totally agree. I recently attended a forum with a lot of women having questions on change management.
ReplyDeleteSo, one point to add to what you said is it also depends on short term or long term change. That too plays an important part in addressing the steps which you mentioned. If it is a short term change, these steps will be much more easier than the long term changes.
But, the conclusion was - it depends on the person....as far as its not crossing others boundaries!