“Coping with the totality of Spaceship Earth and universe is ahead for all of us. Evolution is apparently intent that man fulfill a much greater destiny than that of being a simple muscle and reflex machine…” – Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
It’s been said that change is the only constant in life.
We live in a fast-moving and dynamic world of change that’s difficult for people to navigate. Countless books, talks, studies and billions of dollars have been exhausted in helping humans adapt to the ever-transforming rollercoaster ride called life. And yet many of us still feel overwhelmed and inadequate. Why does change have to feel so disorienting and chaotic each time we experience it?
Why can’t we just enjoy the ride?
In the spirit of becoming more change-agile, let us first recognize that our current reality is no longer simple and linear, but rather multidimensional layers of rapidly evolving and dynamic complexities. Times are changing faster than ever. Megatrends such as urbanization, climate change, and artificial intelligence illustrate how today’s expanding world has become more VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Additionally, new technology breakthroughs in robotics, deep machine learning, augmented reality and others are emerging at an exponential rate.
If managing external change in a VUCA world wasn’t daunting enough, now consider the internal human factor.
Change is naturally difficult for humans because we are driven by patterns and mental bias developed through past experience. Neuroscience tells us the more often the experience, the more hard-wired our brains become. This leads to mental modes that can severely hinder our ability to accept change. Plus, each person uniquely transitions through change at their own pace and with varying belief systems, social privilege or disadvantage, cultural norms, histories, experiences, leadership styles, and levels of capacity. As the population on this planet continues to skyrocket, the challenge in aligning people and the healing division becomes more apparent.
Considering these phenomena within the corporate environment, the workplace is also transforming at an exponential rate.
Numerous companies have opened and closed just in the 21st century. Historically, nine of every ten Fortune 500 companies from 1955 are gone, merged, or contracted. Rest in peace beloved Blockbuster, Kodak, Napster, RadioShack, and Montgomery Ward. According to recent research, 40% of today’s companies listed on the S&P 500 will no longer exist in 10 years. The average lifespan of a company listed in the S&P 500 has decreased from 67 years in the 1920s to 15 years today. With companies serving as such an important economic driver and source of livelihood, it’s worth double-clicking on how organizations deal with today’s change challenge.
Countless research and white papers report a 70% failure rate for companies implementing changes in organizational structure, leadership, technology, process and/or culture. Cross-industry research points to lack of sponsorship, clear direction, goal alignment, poor performance, internal capability, and benefit realization as the main culprits for not making change “stick”. What is the purpose of a company investing in a change if its employees fail to adopt the change?
Furthermore, if employees are assumed to be a company’s greatest asset, then why are so many of us overworked, stressed, and unsatisfied in the workplace? The Gallup organization periodically validates that nearly 70 percent of employees are actively disengaged. A study from the American Psychological Association (APA) found that organization changes leads to employees who are overly stressed, have less trust in their employers and have a greater desire to find new jobs. A Harvard Business Review survey reveals 58 percent of people say they trust strangers more than their own boss. Global studies reveal that 79 percent of people who quit their jobs cite ‘lack of appreciation’ as their reason for leaving.
Due to globalization and short-term financial pressures, workers are expected to work more intensely for extended hours resulting in increased workload stress.
Employees impacted by a change are more than twice as likely to suffer from chronic stress and four times as likely to have physical health ailments – such as headaches, dizziness or shortness of breath – as those who didn’t face any workplace changes. The mental patterns that we impose on ourselves further exacerbate mental and physical health. People from around the globe are suffering from psychological illness and chronic disease. Medical treatments have advanced, but affordability and efficacy still lack to a large degree.
Climate change and environmental degradation are more extreme than ever before. There’s been a 6X increase in weather-related catastrophes since the 1950s resulting in 750 major “loss events” (earthquakes, storms, and heatwaves) that occurred in the USA alone in 2017. Why has humanity lost touch with the significance of nature and all the many ways it sustains our very existence?
And then there is a political and national divide.
Pew research points to over 50% of people feeling “threatened” from our visually divided society as though we are headed towards an apocalypse. Who wants to live with an angered and fearful state of mind? Plus, we miss out on many benefits associated with ethnic diversity when our species is divided rather than united in solidarity.
We were not created to live in this kind of pain and suffering. There is hope in altering our destiny for the better.
As leaders, it’s our responsibility to take action, look for ways to promote change and build practices, policies, and procedures that inspire a healthy flow with change rather than resistance to it. We’re responsible to inspire the best in people.
We take a holistic view of people, processes, and systems for the very sake that they are all multi-dimensional. We apply the scientific method in conjunction with a heart-centered approach that recognizes our humanity and integrates it for the good of our institutions and the planet.
Fasten your seatbelt.
A rise in collective consciousness enables personal transformation and healing in the coming era.
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