Change and Adaptability Starts With Getting Beyond Denial
by Mark Sklarow, IECA Executive Director
I’m blogging today from Toronto where I am attending the American Society of Association Executives Convention. One theme heard throughout this opening day is the role of professional societies in assisting our members as they face change.
Consider this: 20% of what we know as a human species was learned in just the last five years. In the millions of years the planet has existed, and the tens of thousands that humans have walked the earth, we’re fortunate (or not) to live in this era marked by dramatic increase in knowledge, technology, and rapid change.
Change in and of itself is not what’s most critical here, rather it’s our adaptability to that change. So what advice do experts offer that is fitting for both association executives and educational consultants?
First is to Get Beyond Denial. Stop thinking that change isn’t occurring in our line of work, or that the old ways of doing things are just as valid today. Students, families, society are dramatically different from ten years ago. Accept that change is real.
Second, Get Beyond Rationalization. Stop making excuses of why you don’t need to change—that students and families should adapt to your way of working, that you’ve been “doing it this way for 40 years and that’s good enough.” If you accept that the field has changed, that family life has changed, that society has changed then you, too, must change.
Third, Get Beyond Mitigation. Stop looking for temporary fixes and band-aids when the patient needs surgery. Don’t look to gloss over the changes taking place, instead look for ways to get to the heart of the matter.
Fourth and finally, Confront Your Beliefs and Your Comfort Zone and other long-held views. Change requires creativity and fresh thought.
A good example: just a few years ago Nintendo had lost its market share, and in the multi-billion dollar gaming industry was losing badly to other systems. After denying its problems and putting on a good face, Nintendo thought it could mitigate its losses with new games, to no avail. Finally they confronted the long-held belief that game-playing was something done by sedentary folks who wanted to sit. The result was the active, successful Wii system that revolutionized gaming and now leads the pack.
For educational consultants, consider the simple need to communicate with students or families. There are some who deny that things have changed, who argue that communication with families remains much as it did when telephone calls and postcards were the most effective tools. Some, unwilling to change, rationalized that it was part of maturing that students learn to return calls, read postcards, and the like.
Some, realizing that calls weren’t being returned and phone messages were not being listened to, began bypassing students and communicated directly with parents, chalking the poor communication up to kids raised without good manners, good sense, or both.
Others have come to realize that new ways to communicate with students is required, and that the preferred tools may vary. Kids today are likely to text, not e-mail. They’ll return text messages without listening to phone messages left for them. They may communicate freely over Facebook. The family phone may be just for mom and dad, if a family phone exists at all. Other consultants communicate more with blogs, and YouTube videos, and tweets. To communicate effectively with parents, sending a meeting confirmation via Outlook may be more effective than e-mails or phone calls.
The concept remains, in this fast-paced world in which change occurs faster than ever before in human history, those who thrive will embrace the change and use the excitement provided to imagine with creativity how problems can be tackled in exciting, dynamic ways. Until next month when it all changes again.
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I heard something today in Toronto that shocked me and speaks to the pace of change. Social networking (Facebook, Linked-in, MySpace, etc) are now more popular than emailing! While in the USA 1 in 10 adults is on Facebook, here in Canada (and likely in the U.S.’s near future) its 1 in 3. It is unavoidable. All consultants need to look at social media. I will be leading a workshop on what consultants should be doing at our conference in Charlotte.