Everything is always changing
In both our lives and our workplaces
So you should view this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom and a dream.- Excerpt from the Diamond Sutra
All conditioned phenomena are indeed impermanent. Nothing we experience as living beings on this earth lasts forever. Accepting this reality delivers both freedom and insight, with useful applications to experiences from our personal lives to our working worlds.
I’m just back from a quick trip to Portugal with my daughter to celebrate her graduation from high school. I’m facing one of the biggest changes to my role as a mother and householder in almost two decades: I’m soon to be an empty nester! I recently read the statistic that by the time our American children reach the age of 18, we will have spent already 90% of the entire time that we’ll be together with them across our lifetimes. The fact is, my daughter’s wings are already spread wide and soon she’ll be flying off into the beyond.
As we traveled abroad together, I sought to establish a new level of equality with her. Things often felt awkward as we openly negotiated our desires, and we had some deep conversations addressing our changing relationship dynamic. Attempting to cling to her outgoing role as a child who needs my direction would be fighting against nature itself. Of course, as long as I’m on this earth I’ll be prepared to provide care and support for her, yet our relationship is inevitably and righteously changing. As we spoke honestly about this reality, my acceptance of what she wanted to do (or mainly not do!) helped us navigate the sometimes choppy waters of taking an international trip together.
Change at work is constant
In the tech workplace, we have many dynamic elements that combine to define what we get up to. Among other things, there’s a company mission that drives the core of product development activities; the specific individuals and team configurations that coordinate and collaborate to achieve things; and various tools and processes that aim to help us get things done with quality outcomes.
Time marches on, things happen, and without exception, these elements will change. The mission shifts based on market conditions. New people arrive and other people depart. There’s yet another re-org. The new CIO implements policy changes and now we’re defining work items in Monday instead of Jira.
As a product leader, I’m in the business of managing creative work (doing lots of socialization) and overseeing the execution of solutions (maintaining alignment). I do the needful to keep the team’s efforts focused on meaningful business goals and customer needs at the intersection of what’s possible for us to build today and in the future and help ensure that the rest of the organization’s activities operate harmoniously with us as much as possible.
When I talk about “maintaining alignment,” it’s with the understanding that this is an ongoing process and not a fixed state of being.
Because again: there’s simply no such thing as a fixed state of being in the world we mortals inhabit.
Uncertainty and learned helplessness
It’s easy to find constant change upsetting, and it’s natural to resist change in the workplace when/if one is content with how things are. (Admittedly, increasingly few are truly content with the day-to-day reality of their workplaces!)
While it’s part of our human nature to adapt to changing circumstances, dealing with uncertainty, which rises in times of change, isn’t exactly comfortable or uncomplicated. The psychological literature, such as this publication, shows that experiencing uncertainty can generate extreme stress and anxiety. While we can adapt remarkably well to states of discomfort, it’s extremely challenging to manage uncertainty since by definition, it means the ground on which we stand is not stable. We’re always having to watch our footing and shift our stance or viewpoint to maintain balance. When the future isn’t clear, our minds tend to go into overdrive — over-thinking, over-working, over-worrying — as we seek to establish something, anything, that feels certain.
Managing uncertainty for long periods is so difficult that it can lead to a state of “learned helplessness,” a term introduced by Martin Seligman, who led the establishment of the positive psychology movement. When we feel that we aren’t in control of our situation at a fundamental level, over time we tend to stop trying to make things better. At that point, uncertainty has overwhelmed our ability to cope. Because we’re all human, each of us is susceptible to falling into the trap of feeling helpless and acting accordingly.
Strategies to deal with change
Managing change is a giant subject that many experts have written about. Here, I offer a few strategies from my perspective that could offer some relief to the stress of uncertainty and the trap of learned helplessness in the workplace.
Heartset of acceptance. For me, the foundational heartset (which is like a mindset but an emotional state) to deal with change is acceptance. If we don’t fight against the truth of impermanence and instead embrace that it’s the nature of things to always change, then we’re already a step ahead of the game. For me, learning to accept change came through the framework of foundational Buddhist principles, where “all things are impermanent” is one of the Four Noble Truths. Even if you ascribe to a value system that proposes an everlasting eternity, take a good look at our lived reality. Does anything whatsoever that we experience last forever? Knowing in your heart that “this too shall pass” is a powerful state of being — whether “this” is positive or negative.
Embrace iteration. When we iterate something, it means we go through another cycle of work that seeks to evolve and make the thing better in some way. Let’s apply this concept with gusto in the workplace! Know that creative work products are always in the process of being iterated, or could be iterated. Anything that we have conceived and built is ready and able to be changed and ideally improved at any time. Time never stops. What may be possible next?
Constantly assess progress. Assess and measure your current situation against your target goals as consistently and objectively as possible. Over time, even slow, incremental progress and minor ongoing changes may add up to major shifts in direction or significant achievements. Observation and analysis can provide us with a helpful sense of control over our situation. Sometimes, an iteration isn’t an improvement. Rather than resist iteration altogether, however, gather data on the “before” and the “after”. (Is Monday objectively better than Jira? It depends….) Then move along to the next iteration, armed with information so that hopefully this time things become better than before.
Acknowledge illogical factors. Many activities at work happen for reasons that aren’t entirely objective or rational. All sorts of opinions and biases are at play when groups of people come together to do something. The more you understand human psychology, the more you can acknowledge how such elements play a part in business decisions. Recognize that the “value” of some changes will resist quantitative measurements. Perhaps the satisfaction of a certain senior executive at seeing a feature go into development is worth the pain of building that thing and will result in increased social capital for the team that will drive a future win. Although many things at work truly aren’t under our direct control, clearly perceiving them helps us to gain more perspective and better manage our reactions.
Control your narrative. So: you accept change; you embrace iteration; you measure progress; you know things don’t always happen for entirely rational reasons. Putting all those elements together, seek to actively take charge of the narratives that define your work. Whether you’re in a “leadership” position or not, you are the lead actor in your story. Since change is inevitable, define and pursue the happy outcomes you can envision by sharing them with others. Manifest that shit! You can’t rely on others to know or enact your story without your taking positive action toward your needs.
Have a stellar team you want to preserve? Celebrate them loudly, publicly and privately.
Have a vision that you want to implement? Demonstrate with stories and illustrations and data what a beautiful future is possible for your customers and the business by pursuing your ideas.
Have an authority figure who seems to be a blocker to your ambitions? Figure out their motivations and then concretely show them how you could contribute to their success.
While there’s much more to be said, I’ll end here. Dear readers, I’d love to hear some of the ways that you navigate the realities and challenges of change in your lives and workplaces!
Lizz at Devise is a publication exploring the space of design and product management through the lens of heart-centered values and teamwork. Thanks for reading! Lizz has a book in flight about how to build great product solutions. Her firm, Devise Consulting, is open for engagements ranging from advisory and audit services through hands-on user research, UX strategy & design, and management of product development for the solution you want to deliver. Set up a chat here!