Change Is Hard—Gratitude Makes It Easier
Tomorrow we head out for our annual family vacation— kids, spouses and grandkids. It’s something we all look forward to each year. Unfortunately, we’re down one person this year as our son-in-law is on an extended voyage at sea for his work with the Navy.
As the grandkids have gotten older, we’ve grown out of the place we’ve been staying for the past seven years so this year we have a larger place with more bedrooms. No question that we’ll miss the tradition and familiarity of the previous cottage—the community pool, the playground, the friendly staff and the familiar faces that return year after year.
So tomorrow, a new adventure begins—an adventure that builds on the past seven years. This adventure is not meant to replace our previous vacations, it is a change we hope continues and builds on our family tradition.
As you think of the future of your company, you know there’s going to be change as you grow. For you and your team, I believe it’s important that your mindset sees change as building on the past, honouring the past, and being grateful for the past—without judging, condemning or vilifying the past or anyone in the past.
However, it is not easy to frame change as building on the past if we are holding onto the past—and you know better than I, there’s a human tendency to resist change and hold on to what is familiar. Therefore, as a leader your job is to help people appreciate the past and understand how it is a stepping stone to the future.
Specifically, I encourage you to employ these two simple techniques:
regularly share what you’re grateful for about the past and how it’s preparing you for the future. To help normalize the idea of change, you can even share on how the distant past prepared you for the recent past—people can make clearer sense of history, so draw on how you’ve previously embraced change !
invite your people to reflect on what they are grateful for about the past and how they see it as a stepping stone to the future. Invite folks to reflect—don’t force them.
Remember without the past, there is no present and there is no future.
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