Don't get comfy in your comfort zone

I've actually always hated that expression - "comfort zone". It's one that's bandied about a lot in the grey world and it really makes me squirm.

In a five year period, there was a seismic shift in the way change was viewed in the company I worked for. There was a round of redundancies not long after I'd started and there was a whole programme of "change management" that happened across the company. There was counselling for all staff, focus groups on "change resilliency", workshops to help us all manage the "change commitment curve" and lots of talk about early adopters and the late majority.

And then something happened. A few years after those workshops, a bigger change took place in the company (by then large-scale redundancies were just a quarterly budget tactic, so this was even bigger than that). When this change happened there was... nothing. No support, no talks, no workshops. Tumbleweeds were flying out of senior managements mouths (and other places).

I was curious about the difference and spoke to my immediate boss about the new approach. He said, "change is a part of corporate life. If you're not an early adopter, you probably shouldn't be working here."

I swear I detected the faint toll of bells as he spoke. They were ringing from my very soul, but I wasn't listening, yet.

I was always pretty good with change - but I know that's probably only because I was never particularly comfortable anyway, didn't have a comfort zone to be scared out of. I know the 'new approach' hit some of my colleagues extremely hard, but they had to suck it up because to say you were worried meant you weren't professional enough or good enough. It made me feel so sick knowing that these days you can't show even the slightest hint of weakness in your job. Can't take the hits and roll with the punches and bop back up for more? Well, we don't want you and no one else will either.

So we all lie a little. We say, "I love change, I thrive on it." Whaddya got, I'm strong as an ox, I can take it, throw it at me, nothing on it.

We're making some changes with the sleep thing around these parts. I tell myself, "I love change, I thrive on it" but the truth is I love it as much as I ever did, which is to say I love it about as much as my kids do right now. It's hard to roll with the punches when you're kids are crying in the night because you're tightening the rules and you've got to tighten the rules because you just can't take the alternative any more. We need these kids to get to sleep at night at a reasonable time, for themselves and, damn it, for us too.

Sometimes I think that being a parent is scarily like being the boss of a large corporation. Suck it up, kiddos, we need things to be different around here. We've all got to roll with the punches or... nothing will change.

How do you manage change?

{Image found on weheartit. Please let me know if it's yours}

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