A big part of my work this year has been focused on helping organisational leaders and teams to better understand why and how they react to change so they can respond and communicate differently when things feel tricky.
Why does this matter? After all, we’ve always experienced change and uncertainty and it’s part of being human.
Image: Javier-allegue-barros, unsplash
This year we’ve seen the amount of volatility we’re all experiencing increase, from a record number of elections in some significant areas of the globe, such as the USA, India, the EU and the UK. There’s been increased international tension and polarisation, often fuelled by social media, which has its own shifting landscape with the demise of X (formerly Twitter). And we’re seeing the impacts of climate change hitting harder across the globe.
When we’re on the receiving end of all this, each of us can react very differently. We can often see feelings of anger or fear show up and power plays become more frequent and obvious. As a result, communicating effectively becomes harder and we can struggle to move forward with ease.
So, with a greater awareness of how we respond to whatever’s shifting around us and how we communicate as a result, we can be better prepared and make better decisions when we don’t have absolute clarity and need to work through risk. When we can make time to…
Learn how to take a pause to check if we’re reacting or responding to a situation before we make a decision
Understand the power of biases and the impact they have on our decision-making (and recognise how many biases there actually are that could influence us)
Explore how we can be more comfortable with feeling uncomfortable
Recognise how feelings of uncertainty can show up in others and how they can respond or react
Communicate differently to have different and more positive conversations
… life can feel easier.
As we head into a year when we’ll see election promises delivered (or not…) life will continue to be challenging and fascinating in equal measure for us all. Having the fundamentals in place to help us be more adaptable and constantly ready for change, having the right communication approaches in place that create collaboration instead of polarisation and setting the right foundations for trust will all be vital if we’re going to thrive rather than just survive.
If you’d like to explore the fundamentals of change for your leadership approach, team or organisation, get in touch. See you on the other side!