Adapting To Change

 

What is change? Do you have difficulty adapting to change? Are you adapting to positive or negative changes?  

  
     When trying to adapt to a change of scenery or environment and we are having trouble adapting, sometimes to find our way we simply have to ask ourselves those questions. First, let's look at what does Change mean? Change means to make or become different.  In this world there are a lot of things, people, and places that go through changes.  Through all changes to some degree there is an adaptation process that goes along with it.  Let's look at the word Adapt?  Adapt means to become adjusted to new conditions.  Now for many of us, we experience some big changes in our lifetime that we have to adapt to.  Some big changes we all experience in our lifetime are; getting a new job, getting a new home, moving to a new city, attending a new church, or having a new baby.  Talk about adapting! There are many more changes we experience in our lives but the ones mentioned can be very scary or even just plan ole hard to adjust to.

     God gave us all the ability to adapt to things now whether we make it hard on ourselves to adapt to change or not is a different story. We all know that change can be negative or a positive change which on one hand can contribute or not to adapting to change.  I myself, have gone through many changes in my life from jobs to you name it and some were positive and some were negative and that adapt process was sometimes difficult and sometimes smooth. I can honestly say that lessons were learned sometimes the hard way but I'm glad I learned them.  I want to give you a few tips on how you can make that adaptation process go a little more smoother if you are having difficult times with changes in your life and I also hope that your changes becomes positive ones if they are not already.

1.) Understand what the words Change and Adapt really mean. You really can't do anything about what you don't understand. 

2.) God needs to be the #1 source in your life. If God is the #1 source, then He will order your steps, cast away your fears, give you clear and efficient direction on decisions and again with all change comes some adapting; God surly will teach you how you need to adapt to different changes.

3.) Ask yourself; Are you making it difficult for yourself to adapt to changes? Sometimes we can get in our own way and we need to order things within ourselves to find our way.

4.) Ask yourself; Are the changes you are dealing with positive or negative? Is that what's causing me difficulties to adapt? With a lot of negative changes that we may have to go through in our lives, they may be out of our control as far as who developed the change to began with. Know that you, yourself don't have to conform to change if I can ease a little pressure. At that point, you can plan a positive change within yourself that will help you adapt to that negative change that will soon enough turn positive. 

     I wanted to take the time to share a few things that I have learned over the years about adapting to change.  I hope that this does help someone and I want to encourage you to not grow weary in good deeds and keep God first in your life. Although there are going to be harder times then others, know that you always can rely on God and you have all the tools to get through any situation that you may be facing.

     

                                                                                                                                                                                            

Teamwork in the Workplace

Teamwork is defined in the dictionary as a combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficient.  Teamwork can sometimes be minimized to being only for sports teams which is not true.  Although sports is the place where teamwork is most discussed.  How much more productive would companies be if they would embody the mindset of developing teamwork in their workplace? 

The next question is how do you develop teamwork in general?  This is an ever-changing answer because you must first understand that every team is different and there is no one process that works for everybody.  The goal is to move your people to a state of unity and out of the state of self.  This takes time and can be quicker for some than others.   

Here are some simple steps to developing teamwork in the workplace:

1. Awareness - You must first inform your employees that they have made a choice to join your company and every day they wake up and decide to come to work is the first step in showing their commitment to being apart of the team.  So leave your selfish ambitions at home.  When you walk through the door leave personal problems at home and realize you are about to walk into an environment where your actions effect everyone here, so act consciously.  
2. Choose - To make the freewill choice to commit to the vision of the company is a huge milestone for employees.  So many people work because they think they need the pay or they think their family needs the benefits.  This needs to be addressed right away that pay and benefits are bi-products of joining your company.  The reason they decide to commit to your company needs to correlate with your mission and vision of the company's future.  That's great that they want to get paid, but getting paid won't motivate them in high pressure situations.  Getting paid won't be enough to make them pay attention to details and ensure quality work.  Pay is not enough!  People need to be committed to a purpose and as a manager or business owner you need to make it clear that employees are expected to make a decision to commit today!
3. Commit - People commit to what they believe in.  They give their time and invest in what they trust.  So how do you build trust and get your people to invest?  You must first have a clear vision that you communicate to them.  Expectations should be thoroughly explained and the process to reach those expectations are crucial to your team's success.  Once the map is laid out and the directions are given on how to get their - begin to guide and empower your people through this journey.  Constructive criticism is necessary but it needs to be direct and private.  Encouragement builds confidence in people and successful people drink it like water. 
4. Align - In sports, individuals can be so talented that they can win a game, but it takes a united team to win consistently.  The same is true for business.  A talented employee can win some battles or meet some deadlines.  They will not be able to do it consistently because consistency derives from joining talents, gifts, skills and personalities together and getting them aligned.  They must be aligned or on the same page as the leadership.  That is so necessary!  The best example of this is a car.  If you buy new tires, you can't just put them on and go.  You will mess up internal balance and other areas of your vehicle.  After you get new tires, you must get them aligned.  This is the necessary step that people cannot see from the outside but your vehicle will not function properly if you skip this step.