Hey Entre Nation, Jeff Lerner here and I'm going to be talking in this video
about dealing with change in business and in life. We live in an ever changing
world that's had to adapt to some mega trends, especially recently like the
covert 19 virus and it's, you know, massive impact, but other trends that
have been going on for a while like globalization, digitalization, climate
change, resource scarcity, population growth, all kinds of stuff, right? And
these have a direct impact on businesses, on employees, entrepreneurs,
and frankly, well everyone and change can feel scary and uncertain and I'm
sure that you like everyone felt that. But what I want to share with you in
this video are some positive ways to survive and actually thrive with change.
I'll show you how to adapt to change, how to be mindful and even how to create
massive success through how we respond to change. Responding well to change. It
has another name, it's called progress. So let's make some, and if you're new to
this channel, hit subscribe for me. I share videos every week on creating your
most awesome life. All right, let's get into the video. Change management is not
a new concept. It's an approach that prepares and assists organizations,
teams, and individuals for dealing with change. And the key takeaway is how to
be prepared for change. But how exactly can you do that when the world is
constantly in chaos and change by definition can be
highly unpredictable. How can you as a business thrive? How can your team feel
supported? And especially how can you use change as a catalyst to progress and
massive success? Well, the first way is you have to always be adaptable. If
you're part of a company with a staff, maybe you're the CEO, maybe you're an
employee, you have to know that there will be daily changes. Staffing turns
over, skill requirements change, employee duties change. There's changes
to management, policies, changes to management styles. So to be able to deal
with these types of changes, you need to know your industry really, really well
and you need to stay current with what's working in the marketplace. But
adaptability more than all of those other things will always be the biggest
way to use change in a positive way. So, let me give you a real life example.
There is a company called board of innovation. Now that doesn't mean that
they are bored of innovation. It means board, like boa RD. The company is
called, they're like a board of innovation, right? And as a consulting
firm who were having challenge attracting millennials to come and work
for them because millennials expect a more entrepreneurial environment. And as
somebody who teaches entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial-ism, that makes me
happy. Who can blame them for wanting to have a place to go be a little more
creative and innovative? Right? So the way that board of innovation created
change within
their company was to set up what they call intrepreneurship programs with an
I, not an E. And that encourages employees to think and act like
entrepreneurs within the structure of their company. This is actually a big
trend now in the corporate world who's recognized that, that people have a
desire to have a little more freedom and get to be creative in their role within
a company. And that's a great example of boredom innovation of a company adapting
a change in an inspiring way. Well. What about unprecedented change,
unpredictable change? How do you manage that? Well, let me give you another
example. So when Richard Branson, who one of the most creative entrepreneurial
people in the world, at least in the world of business, when he first
released Virgin airlines initial test flight back in 1984 he had rented a
Boeing seven 47 and sure enough, it goes up in the air and a flock of birds flew
into the engine. No one could have predicted that this would happen. And so
the airline, they couldn't get certified to start carrying passengers without a
successful test flight on a working plane. But it couldn't get the money to
repair the plane without being certified. The way Richard Branson dealt
with that was instead of panicking or freaking out or giving up, he stayed
optimistic. He stayed positive, he stayed adaptable and he working really
fast, went and restructured his other companies and pulled money out of
other ventures, loaned it to Virgin, got the repairs done quickly. And then once
he got certified and started doing business, he was able to pay the loan
back to his other companies. So the key is he tried, again, he didn't give up.
Virgin passed its test flight and became one of his multiple in his portfolio of
billion dollar companies. And tip number two is to actually plan for change.
Well, how do you plan for change? Is that even possible? Well, you know,
change in business is inevitable because of the super fast paced ever changing
world that we live in. And some changes are forced and there may be not as
predictable things like global crises, pandemics, we're in one right now,
economic downturn, we're in one of those right now. Right? Or having birds fly
into your airplane. And other changes obviously are predictable and they're a
natural part of evolution. But change itself should always be predicted. And
the ones that are predictable, they can actually be planned out. For example,
implementing new technology and be improving the needs of your customers.
Maybe incorporating new laws or dealing with new regulations or dealing with new
competitors in your industry. You know, as the expression goes, fail to plan and
you plan to fail. So how do you plan for change? Whether you can actually predict
the specific changes are not. The way to plan for change is to have something you
can always lean
on that is forever, unchanging. Even when there's change and in business that
is your mission, specifically your mission statement. No matter what
changes come, you will always be able to go back to your mission statement as
something to anchor to. You can write out your plans, you can write out any
changes that you're dealing with. Write out any, any change responses that you
feel need to be implemented. Document them, communicate them to everyone, your
team, your staff, your clients, depending on the situation. But the
ultimate answer to how to deal with change and what those responses should
be is always going to come from having crystal clear clarity, crystal clear
clarity, crystal clarity around your mission, your mission statement, and the
values and priorities that STEM from your mission statement. What is actually
your desired outcome. That's actually what your mission statement ought to
tell you and what are the reasons and benefits and the goal. If it was a
predictable or functional change, what is, what is the reason why it's
happening and therefore what tasks need to be done and who needs to support or
be involved in those tasks. And then how does the change impact your goals or
your targets? What would the milestones be for measuring how you respond or
adapt to that change and what's the timeline for those milestones? That's a
change management plan and as part of your change management plan, again, I
recommend that you have
a strong mission statement that you can use as a filter for all your responses.
And if you're like, well, that's great, but how do I create a mission statement
for my life or my business? I'm not a big company. Maybe I'm just a guy or
girl working from home on the computer, whatever. It doesn't matter. You can
always craft an effective mission statement. In fact, I highly recommend
that you do not only for your business but for your whole life. And I actually
have a video about that that I'll leave in the description below so you can go
watch it after this video. It's a link on how to create a good mission
statement. And by the way, make money is not a valid mission statement. It's not
good for business, it's not good for life. And the reason is because it
focuses on your needs, not those of your customer or the people around you. And
tip number three for dealing with change is to communicate. So now that you've
dealt with the change, you've accepted it, you figured out how you're going to
respond to the change, it's time to communicate that response to everyone
who was going to be affected by it. So let's talk about how to do that. Well, a
Harvard business review study found that company leaders are most effective in
building support for change when they communicate a vision that clearly
explains not only what will change, but
also what will stay the same. When individuals can see what the end state
will look like and what it will mean for them, they're less likely to experience
anxiety or resist the change. Also, a collaborative approach to change is
recommended and that you involve as many people as possible. This empowers your
staff, your colleagues, or your to be supportive of the change as they feel a
sense of connection because they were involved in the response, and also
consider that your communication around the change needs to be a two way street
where everyone can communicate back and forth, ask questions or provide feedback
with each other. This allows changes to feel inspiring and opportunistic rather
than scary and suppressive. And tip number four, which is one of the hardest
things to do, is to not just deal with change, but to actually celebrate
change. Think about some of the biggest leaders throughout history. People like
Martin Luther King, people like Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, or in business, people
like Steve jobs, Elon Musk, bill Gates, they all have something in common. They
all celebrate change. They advocate for change, they embrace it, they're driven
by it. They know that if they take calculated risks, then big changes and
big progress within the entire world could happen without these people who
encouraged change and who lived way outside of what most people would
consider the comfort zone on a daily basis. Where would the world be?
Honestly, living
in a world without chains would be pretty terrible. So how about
celebrating the changes that have already happened in the world and the
business world and embracing new ones as they come along? Again, if companies
like Microsoft, Apple, Google hadn't taken calculated risks and just even
just launching for those companies was embracing change and driving change,
where would we be? The point is change doesn't have to be negative. Human
beings resist and resent change as a default setting. That doesn't mean it's
negative. It means that's a challenge for us. That's something we actually
need to change. It's a challenge for us to overcome the way we tend to resist
change. Most great things in this world have come from change. So what's the big
difference between a business that just survives change and one that actually
thrives in change and the difference is simple. One is just getting by. The
other is actually using change as fuel to take your life or your business to
the next level. And even I have found being grateful for change because you
know that ultimately something better will come out of it. Gratitude is a huge
element in not just the change conversation, but pretty much every
aspect when it comes to improving your quality of life. I have a whole video on
gratitude and how being grateful can change your life. I'll leave that in the
description as well. And the number five tip for weathering change
and really seizing the opportunity of change is to be innovative. How do you
take your business to the next level? By embracing change, that question has to
constantly be asked and the answer is to get out of experiencing change like a
victim. Like it's just something we can't control. It's just something
that's happening to us or it's something that we've been burdened with. Embrace
the change and actually hit it back, right. You know, they say when the going
gets tough, the tough get going. Well what if we tweak that to be, when change
forces us to adapt the adaptable force change. It's really look within
yourself. How do you actually feel about innovation and dealing with change? Are
you intimidated or are you inspired? Well to really master organizational or
individual change management, you must realize that you hold immense power to
grow your business or to grow your role within someone else's business or even
to grow yourself personally. You hold immense power, especially in times of
change. The first you have to embrace that change is a transformational force
and then you need to commit to execution of whatever the appropriate response is.
You know, most of us, we don't change unless we really, really have to, but
what if you actually choose to be a change maker? What if you get in the
habit of innovating even when it isn't being forced on you? Well then it
wouldn't seem so scary and
uncomfortable if and when it is. We've covered a lot today about adapting to
change. Most importantly, all change is personal. All change must start with
you. Your environment changes. Change hasn't actually happened. When you
respond to that personally, individually or organizationally, that's when change
actually happens and positive change management means being adaptable, not
giving up and planning and preparing. That change is coming. You've also
learned about great communication skills, how to even celebrate change and
how to be innovative. You know, and right now as I'm shooting this video,
depending on when you see it, it may not be close to the time I'm in right now,
but right now as I'm shooting it, we're in a world that's been impacted by this
pandemic called the coven 19 virus. And what I just want to suggest is that
everything that has been talked about in this video is the right response to
covert. If you, if you, you know, whether you've been sent home from work
or you're socially distance or you have to stay home or you're not seeing your
friends, whatever it is, this is a massive opportunity for improvement. I
can tell you when Cove it happened, when the stay at home stuff all happened, I
immediately deleted all the news from my life. I don't care. I don't want to see
the TV. I don't need to know what's happening. I deleted most social media
from my life. I checked in on
it periodically just for business purposes. I don't, I don't go to the
news feed. I don't care what people have to say right now. And I've said, how can
I use this window of time as an opportunity for improvement? Because
improvement is a form of change. And frankly, that's the only form of change
that I've been interested in and it's been great. It's been one of the best
periods of my life. Now, I would love to hear from you, and specifically, what
changes are you dealing with at the moment? What changes will you be
implementing in your life and your business? And how's it going? How has
your response been so far, and what are you planning from here? So please do go
ahead and comment below with your answers and click the like button on the
video if you got any value from this. And also don't forget to hit subscribe.
I post videos regularly and it really, really helps the channel when you do.
Thanks for your time and I'll see you in the next video. Take care.