Not all the changes that we are required to make may be good for us and the ones that we need to make will not be that easy to make.
Different ways to be a chameleon:
1) Making a change according to a particular situation
Possible scenarios:
- A side is two goals down at half-time. The original strategy needs to be overhauled if they are to be given the freedom to attack and have any chance of winning or coming back.
- A presentation has got off on the wrong foot and the set approach isn’t working. Unless the ice is broken in the next few minutes, the presentation might as well be over.
- A day before it is to be launched amidst much fanfare, an app is found to have a bug that doesn’t allow a person to make payments. A solution needs to found in 7 hours or the launch deferred and all the stakeholders informed.
2) Making a change because an old way of doing things isn’t working anymore
Possible scenarios:
a) A toxic culture, one-upmanship, and groupism have bought a team/organization to its knees. Something has to give if the vicious circle needs to be broken and sanity restored.
b) A well-honed style of working perfected over decades has been torn to shreds by advances in technology. Continuing on the same path is a surefire way to extinction.
c) You could drink through the weekend and yet show up to work on Monday without a raging hangover. Not anymore. Your weekends and Mondays are all a blur, leaving you tired and depressed at the end of it.
3) Making a change to fit into a particular type of culture or into someone’s good books
Possible scenarios:
a) Showing up late to work isn’t tolerated and tardiness is not overlooked in this place. Unless you overhaul bad habits that no longer serve you, the odds of success and will remain bleak.
b) There is a gang at work that you have to get into if you want to have the boss’s ear. You need to talk and act in a way that makes you uncomfortable and not fitting in has obvious repercussions.
c) Winds of change are blowing in your organization. New ways of working and transparency are being introduced, making a few of the seasoned employees nervous as old structures and groups are bound to lose their power.
The phrase ‘change color like a chameleon’ has more of a negative connotation than a positive one. And the world ‘change’ has more of a positive connotation than a negative one.
Not all the changes that we are required to make may be good for us and the ones that we need to make will not be that easy to make. Whichever way you look at it, most of us undertake the process of change to fit into something — a new life, a new way of working, a new place of work, a new position, a new ideology, a new way of thinking.
Years back, I recall a colleague telling me I needed to fraternize more and go out partying more often if I wanted to build a network. He was right in one regard — I needed to be more open and social, just that when I tried it, I realized that gossiping and waking up with a hangover wasn’t cutting it for me. It wasn’t a change I was comfortable making.
It might have worked for someone else, but not for me.
3 quick points:
- Understand what needs to change.
- Any change will always be uncomfortable. If the change makes you feel uncomfortable in the wrong way, rethink about it.
- Then make whatever change it is that you want to make.
HT — Boy George
