Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Adapt or Die!



Changes at work made me want to take up arms, so I cleverly began to read a chapter called “Gaining Control Over Change” from my Secrets of Consulting book by Gerald M. Weinberg.

I expected to get some good advice on how to get people to see things my way, instead Jerry informed me that the best way get changed is to resist change. His answer to managing change was to embrace it.



Another name for embracing change is adaptation. Jerry points out that some organisms adapt in order to survive an increasingly hostile environment. This is also called evolution. Hmmm…



I can manage change by embracing change in an adaptive manner. (Or I can become a dinosaur. And perhaps extinct.)



Those who resist change often begin to act in ways that make them change a lot. Rats. That’s what I’m trying to avoid: big change.



Amazingly, Jerry’s advice on embracing small change in order to survive was comforting. It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but it was one I needed.

That’s why I went to Jerry’s book. He knows stuff.

(Pictures are from an outing Dec. 27th 2008 at the Fullerton Arboretum)



3 comments:

  1. i love your posts, Don

    i need to go back and re-read all your affirmations.
    i've been meditating on writing my own

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  2. I love your posts, too, Don. i especially like the way you integrate photos, lovely photos, with the text. I'm going to try to do more of that. Thanks.

    BTW, if others want to have a look at reviews of the book you mentioned, the can look here:
    The Secrets of Consulting

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  3. @Chase: Just writing affirmations is mind-clearing. It's easier to hit the target if you're not blindfolded.

    @Gerald: Thanks. I do enjoy the photos. They don't integrate tightly, at least not thematically, but they are often just a visual glimpse of what I'm looking at in life. (A visual window into my world, along with a verbal one, with little overlap! ;-) )

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