“I’m tired of change…when will this just go away?”
For those on the front lines of an organizational change I’m sure you’ve heard this a time or two. Perhaps you’ve even said it yourself. A typical response is, “It never ends. Look how fast the world is changing…it’s here to stay.”
This statement doesn’t make people feel much better.
I can see why people feel this way. Many have endured countless change mandates (as described in Change or Else! and Get on Board or Get Out). Others have seen change initiatives come and go and the latest request to change is just another thing to endure. And many of us have been at the front line of change for a long time and are flat-out weary.
Why does change fatigue us? How did we get ourselves to this point? And even worse, how have we turned change into the enemy?
Fatigue is guaranteed to happen when change is demanded or there are endless cycles of big change events and initiatives. This post will not cover these scenarios.
This post will also not discuss possible steps and procedures to keep change fatigue from happening in your organization (I.e. leaders communicating more, starting with a vision of your future organization, giving people more time to process the change, or creating a change management plan, etc.) A quick Google search will provide you with many options and you can decide what is needed for your situation.
What we will cover is you (and me). How are you contributing to your own fatigue? It’s time to dive below the surface and discover why we are feeling the way we feel and why we are acting the way we act.
Put simply, fatigue occurs when we overuse healthy muscles and when we neglect unconditioned muscles.
You can tell what your healthy muscles are by looking at the things you are good at and what you get attention for.
When change surrounds us, when we feel unsettled, when all of our hard work produces seemingly negligible results, and when we feel as if change will overwhelm us, we will start doing what we do best to compensate for what we are sensing and feeling. We seek out that which is comfortable and begin to overuse our already overused muscles.
Let’s take a look at a few of these muscles:
The Busyness Muscle. This is when we just keep working and power through. We add more and more to our lists and volunteer for everything until physical and mental exhaustion sets in. Within the busyness muscle group is the Multitasking Muscle where we are not only busy but we are also working on many things at once. Clearly a recipe for fatigue.
The Striving Muscle. A notch above the busyness muscle is the energy spent looking for how we can use a change to our advantage. This muscle of achievement, while not a bad muscle to strengthen, creates an inward focus. The post, “To Remove Organizational Silos, Start Here,” reminded us that real change starts from a position of awareness and empathy. Also in this muscle group is the Looking Up muscle when we use change energy to make sure the boss is happy or looks good. Sadly, most of the time, all you get is a sore neck anyway.
The Security Muscle. The opposite of striving is to keep yourself as safe as possible. When we spend energy protecting ourselves from the impact of change, we are using the security muscle. We keep a low profile and our head down until this whole thing passes over. While you would think we couldn’t possibly get fatigued by using our security muscle, this is actually mentally exhausting and soul-sucking.
In times of change, this is a common reaction from all of us. We find comfort in the familiar but change doesn’t happen in the familiar now does it?
When we focus on one set of muscle groups, just like with our physical bodies, other muscles begin to weaken. These unconditioned muscles are just waiting to help us with our fatigue and develop a “whole-body” strength ready to tackle any change coming your way.
You can tell where your unconditioned muscles are by looking at the things we avoid or things that would go unnoticed by others. It’s kind of crazy how we often avoid the things we need.
So let’s start working out all of our change muscles. If you want to eliminate change fatigue, begin to strengthen your under-conditioned muscles while given your overused muscles a rest. Here are a few to muscles to start conditioning:
The Serving Muscle. When we spend our energy actively seek out others to help we are using the serving muscle. This is where you will find immediate relief from change fatigue. Serving muscles shift the focus from how tired you are and what you are striving for and onto the needs of others.
For immediate relief of change fatigue – begin strengthening your serving muscle.
This often feels counter-intuitive as one would think that we should care for ourselves when fatigued. Indeed, we should look after ourselves (I’ll talk about this in a bit) but there is a unique and precious gift we receive when we become outward focused. I’m sure there are spiritual and scientific reasons to explain the mystery of why this works but what I do know is it does work.
The Heart Muscle. This muscle focuses on the energy we spend on our passions and purpose. As mentioned in the “To Remove Organizational Silos, Start Here” posts, I mention that our personal purpose, group/team purpose, and enterprise purpose MUST be in alignment at all times. If you are using your Busy muscles and Striving muscles for something you don’t believe in, you WILL be exhausted.
When your heart muscle is weak, when your purpose is unclear or out of alignment, your over-used muscles will automatically trigger. You will replace what you love with busyness, you’ll replace serving with striving, and replace joyful productivity with seeking security.
When your heart muscle is weak, you will replace what you love with busyness, you’ll replace serving with striving, and replace joyful productivity with seeking security.
The best way to tell if your heart muscle is becoming stronger is to listen to the stories you tell and are hearing from others. Stories of growth, hope, aspiration, trials, and success should be leaping out from inside of you. Stories from those around you should inspire you and make you proud of how they are living out their passion and purpose.
The Do Less Muscle. For many of us, myself included, the ability to shut down and recover is always a challenge. The Do Less muscle focuses on resting and restoring. This muscle prepares us for when the hard work of living out your passion is needed most.
Sometimes doing less is what we need to prepare us for when the hard work of living out your passion is needed most.
My friend Aaron McHugh has a chapter in his book “Fire Your Boss” called Pace Yourself. In it, he explains how we can fill ourselves up with nutrient-rich activities and deplete ourselves with empty activities. Knowing how full or empty we are is a good first step in recognizing the need to strengthen our Do Less muscle.
There you go…three muscles that need to be strengthened and your fatigue will begin to dissipate. It may take a little time before you see your energy return but return it will. Serve others, listen to and tell heartfelt stories, and rest and recover.
If we are charged with equipping people to thrive in change through our coaching, it is your time to become a physical trainer for those in your organization and your teams. Take the time first to build up your unconditioned muscles. Model and teach what you have learned to strengthen the unconditioned muscles of others.
Now, instead of saying, “Change will never end” we can respond with, “No matter what happens you’ll be ready…”
