Career Advice: Career Success Requires Management Of Change
Career Advice: SUCCESS REQUIRES MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE by Ramon
Greenwood Change is certain and constant. Benjamin Franklin
would have been wise to add "change" to his adage that "death
and taxes are the only certainties of life."
We are inundated every day with new relationships, new ways to
do things, new expectations and new information. The total of
all knowledge doubles every five years. It has been estimated
that 75 percent of all current workers will need retraining by
the year 2010; today's high school graduates will have to be
prepared to change jobs or careers at least 10 times in their
lifetimes.
The way each of us handles change bears a direct correlation
with our career success.
We can resist change - deny its existence, keep on doing things
in the same old ways because that's the way we've always done
them. Then we will be buried with the other relics of the past,
done in by what the author Alvin Toffler termed, "Future Shock."
We can merely accept change and go along with the world it
produces for us. If so, we will dance on cue to whatever tune
the fiddler chooses to play.
BECOME AN AGENT OF CHANGE
Or we can recognize that change is inevitable and embrace it. We
can become agents of change, so we have a hand in shaping the
environment in which we live and in determining our own success.
The alternative is obvious: be content to remain with the old
and familiar, accepting the idea that the comfort of a known
environment is worth being left behind as the world marches on.
In order to live with change, we have to realize that success is
never finally achieved. Mountain climbers have a saying, "You
never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments,
then the wind blows your footprints away."
Peter Drucker, the chief management guru, declares, " ...
success always means organizing for the abandonment of what has
already been achieved. There is no more difficult challenge."
This means to try new and unfamiliar ideas, untested ground,
unthinkable thoughts. That is uncomfortable, but always exciting
territory. But it can be dangerous. However, like it or not,
that is where the gold is to be found.
Machiavelli wrote in The Prince in the early 1500's: "There is
nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to
conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead
in the introduction of a new order of things, because the
innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the
old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well
under the new."
George Bernard Shaw wrote: "Progress is impossible without
change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change
anything."
Being an agent of change and a beneficiary requires flexibility
and imagination, as well as courage.
CHANGE AND AMBIGUITY ARE HANDMAIDENS
But most of all, to prosper in a changing environment requires
that we be able to thrive in ambiguity, because uncertainty is
the constant handmaiden of change. Change and ambiguity go
against the grain of human nature; many people simply can't
tolerate that condition. They want everything in order and ready
answers for all questions. Unfortunately, that is not the nature
of organizations in flux.
The successful careerists will recognize this truth and see that
uncertainties offer the opportunity for answers and for
leadership. Confident in their abilities and the future, they
will seize the moment.
No one ever said it would be easy. But common sense tells us
that we have no choice about the fact that change - at an ever
increasing pace - is a sure bet. We also know that unless we
change ourselves and bring about change in the organization
where we live and work there can be no progress.
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