I'm Only Human, Or: How to Manage Change
Alice Hunter

Raise your hand if you made some 1997 New Year resolutions. Me too. "Smaller thighs and no more Dairy Queen." Did you promise yourself you'd make some changes in your behavior despite all the times those same promises have been broken? Probably because something you are or are not doing is or is not working right, so you want to change how you are doing it now to something better.

Funny thing about change. . . . Whether we realize it or not, we are all in a constant state of it. But you wouldn't know that from the way we moan and whine and resist making even the smallest adjustments. Take, for instance, what happens when someone disturbs the ritual of where you place your briefcase or keys when you walk in the house. Or interrupts your bedtime ritual with a phone call.

My personal favorite example of change resistance is the way we take the same seats in a two-day workshop even if one of our goals is to network and meet new people. Most of us stroke out over the small stuff like receiving a "no" in response to a minor request or being asked to change the way we've always done those reports. Then, by the time the big stuff like divorce or financial strain rolls around — and it always does — we're in a state of change shock and ready to be hospitalized.

Of course, responding to or reacting to change is natural. We are, after all, only human; uniquely flawed creatures who seldom flex, sometimes bend, and often break under the weighty emotional, psychological pressures of change.

However, all is not lost. It's a new year and, as my motto stolen from the Evian water commercial says, another day (year), another chance to be healthy (about change), if one is open to learning more about the psychology of change. This, however, requires making a change in the way we think about change which automatically eliminates those among us who have mastered the art of change resistance. Nevertheless, the rest of us may be interested in understanding our individual patters or change styles. The classification of a change style is a simple method I've developed over the years to first assess your change style and then to work with what you've got to make it work better.

In any group of people, there are at least three change style categories. Change Dinosaur is a person who has worn the same hair cut or held the same job for twenty years. There are also Change Darwinists, who don't particularly enjoy change but who go along to get along. And, lastly, we have Change Rebels, who, if things don't change fast enough, will engineer it. They revel in the chaos of changing times.

Recognize yourself? Happy with your style? If you'd like to become a bit more "change hardy" for 1997, let's get together and see if you can keep the change. I'll see you at the workshop in April.

Editor's note: Alice Hunter, director of Transitions Inc., is a counselor who focuses on workplace issues. She will present "The Human Side of Change," a preconference to be held 8:30 a.m.-12 noon, Tuesday, April 8, at the TLA Conference in Fort Worth.