My Take on Change Management

“The only person who truly enjoys change is the baby with the dirty diaper”

I don’t know who said that, but for the longest time, it has been one of my favorite quotes.  I’ve used it to remind myself of the need to embrace change and roll with the punches when work goes through its seemingly annual re-organizations and process changes.  It has served me quite well and until recently, allowed me to avoid most of the stress and anxiety that goes with change in the workplace.

This changed a few months ago when fundamental changes were made within my group at work.  These changes drastically altered the way that we manage our business and made little sense to me.  Ever the opinionated one, I’ve made my opposition to these changes known and have caused quite a bit of stress for myself by resisting them.

It wasn’t until a recent conversation with a coworker that I realized I may have fallen victim to the trap that I had always been so careful to avoid.  I’d forgotten the above quote and tried to fight change rather than embrace it. 

To solve this problem, I’ve turned to a more powerful change management experience that I had at the gym last year.  At that time, the gym leadership had just finished renovating its locker rooms.  As a part of the renovations, they completely redid the men’s showers to go from a gang shower with multiple faucets to individual stalls.  I took this change in stride since, like I assumed most people would, I viewed this added privacy as an improvement. 

Much to my surprise, this caused an uproar with the group of older, often excessively naked, men who frequent the locker room in the morning.   For the rest of the summer their topic of conversation, often spoken as loudly as possible, was that it was “an absolute travesty” that the gym had given in to the “young prudes” who also worked out at the gym and preferred stalls to gang showers.

Coming back to the present time, I now realize how ridiculous my vocal protestations against change have been and I’d like to share my lesson learned with you all.

“When it comes to change, don’t be the naked, old man in the locker room.”