It's often easy to identify the downside in change. But the problem with this type of attitude is that it doesn't help you face the future. Change won't go away, so you need to adopt a positive perspective to better come to terms with it.
A creative strategy named "reframing" allows you to gain a more positive perspective on change. First you identify current beliefs and values around a particular issue – your frame of reference for dealing with a particular situation.
You then step back to notice the underlying attitude that colors your beliefs and values. You consciously adjust this attitude and adopt a different mindset with regards to the change.
Reframing attitudes toward change
Old patterns of response can keep you in a resistant state of mind. To move ahead in life, you sometimes need to learn new ways to think and respond to your environment. Suppose you notice you're resisting change. Notice how you express your negative reaction in thought and words. Perhaps you're in a meeting and you realize you're thinking "This is a waste of my time." When you think this, you no longer listen and you stop contributing to the meeting.
When you reframe your thoughts to "What can I learn here and what can I offer?" your experience of the meeting changes to match these thoughts. Suddenly you find you have something to learn and to offer. The meeting no longer feels like a waste of time at all.
You can apply reframing in most situations where you find yourself thinking negative thoughts. "This is too difficult," becomes "Some of this is easy, and the difficult stuff is interesting." "I'm not experienced enough," becomes "I'm keen to learn." "My manager is being over-critical," becomes "My manager is helping me to achieve more."
Practical positives
Reframing works well for dealing with organizational change. You may never get to the point where you like the change, or would have chosen it yourself, but it can help you make peace with change. It can be an important step in the transition from passive acceptance to actively embracing change.
To reframe your thoughts about organizational change, search for its potential practical and emotional benefits. These are ways in which change might improve your professional situation in the short or long term. For example, if your company lays off employees, you may discover ways in which your career will benefit directly. It may give you work opportunities that wouldn't otherwise have been available.
If you have to learn new skills and processes, you may stand to gain specific skills or knowledge to advance your career. For example, perhaps you'll learn to use new software or receive more formal training.
Explore the specific ways in which these benefits may be valuable and how you can make the most of them.
The future is uncertain so reframing isn't about identifying things that are bound to happen. It's about focusing on possible benefits you think change has a good chance of producing.
Emotional positives
Searching for emotionally positive benefits is an important way of reframing your situation. This helps you make peace with organizational change and perhaps even become enthusiastic about what it has to offer.
Positive emotional outcomes are ways in which your emotional state improves as a result of change. A change at work may help you to feel happier, more contented, or more fulfilled.
Remember, new responsibilities or working with other colleagues can be exciting and fulfilling. Think about current duties or colleagues who have a negative emotional impact on you. Then consider potential changes that might have a positive emotional impact and enable you to do more.
Negative colleagues – natural pessimists or those who are unsupportive of you – can have a negative effect on your emotional state. So too can tasks that you find unstimulating or overfamiliar. You reframe your emotions about these colleagues or tasks when you focus on the positive emotional benefit which comes from escaping such negative influences.
You know which work you find particularly enjoyable or stimulating. Perhaps you are, or could be, really good at it. Change may allow you to spend more time on it, so work becomes more pleasurable.
Reframing allows you to gain a more positive perspective on change. This strategy helps you to step back so you can notice the underlying attitude that colors your beliefs and values. You can then consciously adjust these and re-think the situation more positively.
You can reframe a negative attitude about change by focusing on potential practical and emotional benefits the change may bring.