Talk at International Paper

Topic:  Change Management - Professional and Personal.

Speaker Series' have always been a favourite. When at Google, I'd try and catch every single one, and I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said it's one such that changed my career course and so, my life. A whole different story. 

So when I was invited to talk at a speaker series, I guess I was going to hold it with all the significance and  focus it deserved. The talk was to the women's forum of International Paper.

International Paper is the largest paper manufacturer in the world, with presence across twenty four countries, and with five offices in India. A nice coincidence was that I had visited their paper manufacturing units at Rajahmundry and Kadiyam, way back, like over twenty years when I was with IDBI. That's trivia which gave a nice feeling :)

That's part of the wonderfully interactive and engaging group from the Hyderabad office.

'Change Management' as a term is technical, used mostly in context of employees handling situations of change in companies, especially so restructuring and the like. That said, considering the topic read 'Professional and Personal' I decided to give it a more 'You' edge.

Why does 'Change' even become a topic?

Because change is difficult.

As true as the oxymoron 'Change is the only Constant', is the undeniable truth that as people 'We Resist Change'. What follows is a space that's ripe for conflict.

The difficulty rests not in the change, but in our resistance to it. It's in the emotions that it brings up. The real issue is in dealing with those difficult emotions.

We spoke of how change can be of two kinds:

1. Change which happens to us - happens in our ecosystem and impacts us
2. Change which we make happen - a more driven and empowering space

Change which happens to us:

Each of us holds in addition to work ( women's forum) a whole large responsibility of running a house. There is so much detail and busyness in dealing with regular life, that when anything changes, we're at best coping with the change. Is there a more efficient way of coping. What would it take to 'handle' rather than 'cope'.

And where and how then do we even find the time or energy or mind space to make change happen.

Awareness and clarity.

Life will throw those curved balls at you. And typically difficult situations bring in emotions of 'Worry' and 'Anxiety' and such which can just consume you. And the tough part; when in weak space so many little other worries will piggyback. You mostly won't even be aware of which issue is bothering you most.

We spoke of how with any such situation we can separate out the 'controllable' and 'uncontrollable' facets. Focus time and energy on the controllables. Find that course of action, whatever be the effort and energy needed, as therein lies the closest path to solution.

And the uncontrollables.....that's best let go off. Any worry there is not just redundant, but is actually counterproductive. Worry creates anxiety, which just attracts more worry and spreads and thus multiplies itself. So best is let go of the uncontrollables, as they are anyways 'un'controllables.

Might sound easier said than done, but it's as with anything else...practice makes perfect.

So key to thinking clearly when caught up in those difficult emotions 'split the controllables and uncontrollables'.

Now the more empowering space

Change which we make happen:

Here I used the 'Why' 'What' and 'How' model.

Why ?

Because that's the path to growth, fulfillment, authenticity, improvement, joy, evolving and such. Makes the difference between 'existing' and 'living'.`



What ?

It's about identifying what matters to us in life. Finding the important (quadrant D, the one in red) through the maze of the life of detail, the little urgents, which might never let you get to the important.



And as a first baby step to Self awareness, we did a little exercise. An activity called the 'Wheel of life'.

The wheel of life is an exercise where you look at the various buckets in your life, the various facets. Family, Health, Work, Friends, Significant relationships, Socializing, Community Service, Spirituality, Personal Growth, Recreation, Leisure, Travel...whatever exists. Then figure out how much of life it occupies now, and ideally how much you'd like it to occupy. Then you see the gap..... somewhere in there is a glimpse of what you'd like changed.

How?

Once you know the 'what', you figure out your course of action. And in this space, a few points worth noting:

1) Never start with constraints
2) Courage is not the absence of fear, it is to have that fear and act inspite of it
3) Takes the leap of faith

And to remember, It's always a choice. And one that takes listening, listening to your own inner voice. Not the voice from outside, not even the one from inside that's so conditioned that it reflects the outside, but to actually find your own inner voice. It's not about taking the easy path. It's about taking the path that you want.

After all, looking back end of life, it is said that "What we regret are the things we did not do, the chances we did not take, the relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make"

Wake up calls and inspirations can come from just about anywhere....it's about keeping oneself tuned.

Enjoy and Drive change....makes the living worthwhile :)