When change is hard

The fisherman and I were returning from an unexpected family funeral over the weekend when we received a phone call that a prominent fellow horse woman and her husband were killed in a small plane crash late Sunday evening. My heart sunk. I rode horses with this woman, saw her at shows, and I even boarded my horse at her barn last year. My body ached from the intense emotion and grief of the weekend and my heart sunk for the family and close friends of my fellow equine lover. My mind raced with thoughts—the bad kind. You know. The kind of thoughts that plague you when you’re so fatigued you can barely see straight or put together a sentence. The stream of thoughts that you wish you could “switch” off because you know you’re not thinking clearly. Everything feels big and overwhelming. It’s hard to even crack a smile.

Sometimes change is so hard and unexpected that the best thing we can do is stop. And rest. And consciously choose to pull up and try really hard to let go of our thoughts, even if only for a day.

I share this story with you because I think it ’s real. We all go through change that stops us in our tracks. I think it’s important to remember this as we lead change in our organizations. I’ve been part of mergers and acquisitions where there is an incredible sense of loss. I’ve also seen changes to processes and tools—the “way we do things”—where folks really struggle. It’s okay to put the change on hold for a day and not talk about it, go inward, and do our best to let go of the stress and look at the change for what it is—hard. I would add that I think this strategy not only makes business sense, it makes human sense. The change will go on. And, we can practice being gentle with ourselves and others along the way.

Namaste dear friends.

Tagged as: Change Management, Leadership, leading change, Management, managing change, Organizational Behavior