Newsletter

Online Newsletter for Call Center Personnel
Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D. Editor and Publisher
Volume VI, Issue 5

Date: May 1, 2005 - Change Management

Change management is my chosen topic for this month's newsletter. Why? At the moment, it feels like an uphill battle here at HTG.

We are changing some of our systems, upgrading others, with the biggest changes in our email and website - no small thing! (This email is being generated automatically--once I've created it - I'm open to any comments, suggestions, feedback, etc.)

I have just learned that inadvertently you may have been sent an email, not only incorrect but two times, and for that I apologize. I believe the problem is fixed and it won't or shouldn't happen again.

I have to constantly remind myself that change is good, take it one step at a time, and remember all my stress management tools. For today, the most important one is to breathe and remember when the universe gives you lemons, it's an opportunity to make lemonade.

Interesting, our first newsletter on the topic of change management was in August, 1999, and then stress management first appeared in 2001 (in our newsletters I mean).

On the topic of change, here are the 6 stages of change we all go through. That means you, your boss, your employees, your customers, your family, friends, co-workers, etc. See where you and they fit:

1) Precontemplation. The writer G. K. Chesterton might have been describing precontemplators when he said, "It isn't that they can't see the solution. It's that they can't see the problem." Precontemplators have no intention of changing their behavior; they deny even having a problem. They can be defined as 'not changing!'

2) Contemplation. Here you acknowledge you have a problem and begin to seriously think about solving it, but not right away. (but within the next six months). You know your destination, you even know how to get there, but you aren't quite ready to go yet.

3) Preparation. You plan to take action and begin setting dates. The change appears on your calendar.

4) Action. This stage is very busy, very labor intensive because this is where change actually takes place.

5) Maintenance. Change never ends with action. Maintenance is critically important to prevent lapses and relapses.

6) Termination. This is the ultimate goal for all change. Old behaviors never return. You have complete confidence that you can cope.

Change occurs on a continuum. It's a process, not an event. Sometimes we leap, sometimes we crawl, and sometimes we seem to slip back. However, so long as we continue to visualize positive change, that change will occur. This focus is required at all stages.

Even though change is inevitable, we creatures of habit seem to want it and resist it at the same time. For example, some people see change as an incredible opportunity and others see change as a threat.

What's important here is that you acknowledge wherever you are on the continuum. Otherwise, you'll never get to where you're going (obviously if you don't know where you are!).

For me it's the ABC's, A = where you are now, C = the end result and B = that in between 'no place' that needs to be addressed, acknowledged, sometimes communicated so that we can transition to what's next.

I know the end result is a good one, that we made the right choices, that the systems work, that their automation will free time up for all of us, but that's the future. For today, I need to keep remembering that this is a good and wise decision in the best interests of all and put one foot in front of the other, taking my baby steps as we learn this new process, and last but not least keep my sense of humor.

After all, the truth is no one likes change except a wet baby! (and probably a vending machine)

Until next month...
 

© 2005 Human Technologies Global, Inc. All rights reserved

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