Initiating Change from Within - Change Leadership Essay
Initiating Change from Within
Introduction
There is an old saying that goes, “the only thing permanent in life is change”, this holds true for almost everything in life. Even our bodies attest to that fact. We are not the same physiologically, mentally and psychologically as we were, say, ten years ago. Change is inherent in the world that we live in.
If change is something that is inherent in nature, it seems that resisting change is something that comes with it naturally. All our lives we try to resist change, our life is somewhat a constant struggle against change. Resisting change is something that many people tend to do in many situations. We sometimes can get so comfortable with what we have as of the moment and as human beings will struggle to hang on to it at all costs. It is but normal for anyone to hang on to circumstances that we are comfortable with and resist lest we lose the things we have worked so hard for. As people we are inherently hypocritical and will only espouse the change that will benefit us (Cummings, 2008). It is quite ironic though that even though change is something of a constant in life we tend to fight it as soon as we see it. But what is change anyway?
Change actually implies a marked transformation in situation, a relationship or an organization (Wamwangi, 2003). In effect it is actually something new or different from what we are used to. Even though as I have said we do not like change there are instances wherein we are thrust into situations that require us to be the ones who effect change. This is usually the case when we are thrust into leadership roles. But the fact that you are not a leader does not discount you from effecting change. We are all as capable of effecting change as the next person.
As ironic as it may seem, change for some reason does not happen the way we want it to, it may happen but not in the way expect it to be. In order to come up with desired changes we can use strategies to come up with results.
Introduction
There is an old saying that goes, “the only thing permanent in life is change”, this holds true for almost everything in life. Even our bodies attest to that fact. We are not the same physiologically, mentally and psychologically as we were, say, ten years ago. Change is inherent in the world that we live in.
If change is something that is inherent in nature, it seems that resisting change is something that comes with it naturally. All our lives we try to resist change, our life is somewhat a constant struggle against change. Resisting change is something that many people tend to do in many situations. We sometimes can get so comfortable with what we have as of the moment and as human beings will struggle to hang on to it at all costs. It is but normal for anyone to hang on to circumstances that we are comfortable with and resist lest we lose the things we have worked so hard for. As people we are inherently hypocritical and will only espouse the change that will benefit us (Cummings, 2008). It is quite ironic though that even though change is something of a constant in life we tend to fight it as soon as we see it. But what is change anyway?
Change actually implies a marked transformation in situation, a relationship or an organization (Wamwangi, 2003). In effect it is actually something new or different from what we are used to. Even though as I have said we do not like change there are instances wherein we are thrust into situations that require us to be the ones who effect change. This is usually the case when we are thrust into leadership roles. But the fact that you are not a leader does not discount you from effecting change. We are all as capable of effecting change as the next person.
As ironic as it may seem, change for some reason does not happen the way we want it to, it may happen but not in the way expect it to be. In order to come up with desired changes we can use strategies to come up with results.
References: Cummings, Thomas G.2008.Handbook of Organization Development. SAGE Publications, Inc Kotelnikov, Vadim.2001. Resistance to Change:Understanding and Overcoming Human and Organizational Barriers. Ten3 Business Nickols, Fred. 2010. Four Change Management Strategies. Distance Consulting LLC. Wamwangi, Kinuthia. 2003. Organizational Development as a Framework for Creating Anti-Poverty Strategies and Action Including Gender Mainstreaming. Global Distance Learning Centre, Tanzania