What I Learned from Unexpected Change

Does change ever sneak up on you?

Do you ever think that things have finally normalized, stabilized, settled-down, only to have something really big reveal itself as the Next Big Change?

It happens.

We can prepare for change, adapt to change, embrace change, even drive change and there will always be changes that surprise us. Big things. Life changing things. Out of nowhere, they surprise us and suddenly a huge part of our energy is spent in dealing with the change.

Even high performance leaders must deal with surprise.

I once owned a little green bungalow in Chicago. I loved that little house. I loved it even before I bought it. I would walk by it on my way to the bus, always going down 39th Place so that I could see that house. "Someday" I told myself, "someday I am going to buy that house..."

When the for sale sign did come up on it, I bought it within a week. The house served our little family well, and even though the bedrooms were cold and the electric was sketchy and the heater was ancient, I loved that house.

Which is why it was so hard to sell it. Twice. How do you sell a house twice? Well, the first time didn't turn out exactly as planned.

I sold it the first time because I was offered a big promotion in Springfield, Ohio. Our company was making a change, and that meant moving our portion of the business to Ohio.

Life was going to be great. Compared to Chicago prices, our little family would be able to move up significantly from a real estate standpoint. We did all the big talking, made all the tough decisions, and set about planning the big move.

We were one day away from making an offer on a new house in Ohio when my boss took me out to dinner. This must be good news, I thought...he's taking me out to an expensive restaurant. Life was good! Change was exciting!

He asked me how things were going. I told him about the move plans for the business and how we'd told all of the staff about the big change and even made several trips to Springfield to interview and hire the new team there. "And, on a personal note," I said, "tomorrow I go to Springfield to make an offer on a new home."

"Not so fast," he said. "I can't tell you why, but don't buy that house. I can't tell you why, but we've changed the plan and we are not going to move the business to Springfield after all. In fact, I'm going to need to have you lay those people in Springfield off and talk to the people in Chicago about staying..."

That was a change I was not expecting. Fortunately, even though I'd already sold the house in Chicago the young family who bought it agreed to nullify the deal and let us keep it. The company made them whole (gave them their expenses back plus a little "sorry about that" money) and life continued in Chicago.

Was it the end of the world? No. I still feel badly for those people who'd been promised jobs in Springfield only to have them taken away. It wasn't fair what happened to them, but they did find new jobs, probably even better jobs.

The business prospered in Chicago and after huge efforts and the hard work of a team quickly developed into an elite team that was normalized, stabilized, and excelling.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere the announcement was made that we would be moving the business after all -- but to Trevose, Pennsylvania.

Could I control that? No. Did I have much influence over that? Not very much. Could I manage my reactions to that? Absolutely.

Time after time, changes occur that I can't control and would not have asked for, but that also doesn't mean that I'm powerless. We learn from change. We grow from change. We create better possibilities through change. Even when that change is unexpected.

What did I learn from almost living in Springfield?

Stay the course

As long as we know what our personal mission is -- our reason for being (not the company's) we can manage unexpected change. It may be a strategic moment, a time for big decisions, but if we stay the course, we achieve clarity.

Identify what you can influence

If you control it, you decide. If you can influenced the outcome, then you act on your influence to impact and maybe change in the direction that you want. It is important to identify exactly what you can influence and operate from there, even if all you can influence is your own reaction to the change. Usually, using our high performance leadership strengths of creativity, courage, compassion, and clarity we can exercise much more influence than we may have at first thought.

Influence carefully

What if you can influence the change? It's worth carefully examining the thinking behind the change before deciding to become disruptive or uncooperative. Sit with it a moment. If you stop a change that's needed, it will inevitably occur anyway -- and by then you may have lost your ability to influence or benefit from the change.

Treat people with respect

Sometimes we strongly disagree. There have been many times when I felt like a pawn in a massive chess game that I had no influence over. Even in those times there have been people willing to listen, willing to help, and working to make the change a positive one.

Sometimes the changes that I initially resented the most became the best thing for me. If I'd trashed the people trying o manage me through those changes, it would have been bad for them, but far worse for me. And, I would have missed the benefits of the change.

Even when we're struggling, we should treat each other with respect, and listen. It's a small world. We'll need to work with each other again. That doesn't mean leaping off the edge of a cliff or acting cult-like without using our brains, but it does mean to honor those around use who are dealing with their own struggles.

Anticipate change

The toughest part about unexpected change is the unexpected part. We don't like to be surprised. But, how much of that surprise factor can we personally manage?

If we are paying attention, if we are watching the trends and the competition, if we are listening to our customers and our peers, if we are developing mentoring and mentored relationships with creative people -- change, or the need for change, reveals itself before we are surprised by it. Change reports its need. Change gives itself away.

By anticipating, and even driving change the surprise factor is not only easier to deal with, it's seldom even a surprise at all.

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