Change. Is it really as good as a holiday?

31 July 2018

The age-old saying “Change is as good as a holiday” is one of those quotes you hear often and it can be applied to different contexts. As management consultants, we see the opportunity change can offer and believe there are many positives that can be achieved from embracing new opportunities and embracing something different from your normal routine. The simple of art of making a change has been proven to increase your wellbeing and make you genuinely happy which is the main reason why we all love holidays. Inspired by one of our Change2020 team members holidays to the Grand Canyon we explore paradigm of this saying and we just couldn’t resist using this fantastic shot of this mule to do it!

Our changing world of work – embracing change

Technology and digitisation has moved us into a rapidly changing age that sometimes makes your head spin. Change is coming at us with the greatest velocity in human history. Consider this, in the single second it took you to read that sentence, the following just occurred;
1. An algorithm executed 1,000 stock trades…
2. Computers at Visa processed over 3 million transactions, no doubt a few of them providing payment for the
3. 17 packages that robots helped pack and ship from Amazon warehouses
4. Right now, 56,000 Google searches are returning tens of billions of results links…
5. At this very moment, more than 2.5 million emails are being sent, not all of them by actual human beings.

Considering the pace of change, in order to thrive in our changing world, it is imperative we learn to embrace change and ambiguity. Change2020’s sister company, AdaptiQ Minds was developed with the express intent of addressing the rate of failure following the implementation of organisational change and to move organisations ahead with innovation and creativity. It’s often just the fear of change that cripple’s employees and holds them back from embracing the future. The first step to embracing change is to become aware of how you respond and see opportunities ahead. The right changes to organisations can reap significant rewards for the business and the employees. Responding to change positively has a vast array of benefits, so why not review your reactions and responses when you are presented with your next opportunity.

If you don’t have the luxury of an upcoming holiday to review how you respond to changing situations, no worries, consider these simple ideas to gain a fresh perspective:
Rearrange your desk – Almost anyone can do this, from cubicle worker to CEO to freelancer. Sometimes everything just feels a bit too familiar and having a switch around and cleaning out some of the paper can assist with clarity and effectiveness and therefore your overall wellbeing.
• Switch around your routine – Always get to your desk for 8.30am and leave at 5pm? Try getting up earlier for a week and getting to your desk at 7am, then play with the freedom that gives you. Maybe go for a run mid-morning or attend to a personal errand. Anything to break up and change the norm.
• Practice the art of movement – Not moving enough; wake up your mitochondria – a powerhouse of energy cells which get your system working properly 3-4 hours of physical activity per week helps to regulate emotions and more readily shake the past.
• Write your ‘dream-catcher’ list, all of those ideas and dreams you have ambition for – a simple list of the activities you would like to try or to shake up your routine – perhaps it’s something like trying a new style of coffee or much more daring like skydiving to push you out of your comfort zone.

At Change2020 we help individuals and organisations to embrace uncertainty and ambiguity and to find opportunity within the change. We work with people to foster creativity, to think differently and to proactively tackle complexity and unfamiliar situations. To find out more about our approach and how we can help you to positively integrate change into your working patterns, get in touch with us here.

Kerryn Fewster

Kerryn is the Founder and Director of Change 2020. She has consulted extensively in the area of Transition and Transformation. She places emphasis on strategy development and solution implementation to minimise people and operational impacts associated with major change.

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