Work is a large part of life for most people. And it’s important. Work provides structure and discipline. It provides for other things in life. Essentials. Non-essentials. But due to that importance we can often take on work that negatively affects our life.
How do you go about changing a work situation? Maybe you don’t necessarily want to leave a job. You just want to change an aspect or two. Maybe there is a single coworker that is causing issues. They’re distracting. Their negative attitude brings you down. Any number of things.
Here are a few thoughts on actually making a change at work.
1. Long-Term Goal, Small Steps To Get There
The key for any change is to create an end goal, but then to work it back to small steps. It’s that way if you’re on a muscle building program or weight loss program. It’s that way if you’re going on a long car ride. You break any long journey down into small increments so you can experience the progress and maintain the motivation to keep going.
Every change at work will be different. Some will require only a short amount of time. Some will require longer time commitments. Whatever the case it’s rarely about ripping off the band aid. Fast changes shock the system in most situations. That can cause discomfort even if it’s a good thing. And that can lead us back to the way things have always been.
You probably know what you want. But figuring out the steps to get there is the key.
2. Talk To Your Boss
Change will affect you and possibly others in the organization. It’s good to have a conversation with your boss. About their expectations for you. You may want to talk about the challenges of the current situation. Talk about what you feel is the best change. See if they agree or maybe want to make some changes to the plan.
Having your boss or coworkers on board is a good thing. If they’re on board you have the confidence to make the change. They may even help keep you on track.
It can be a delicate conversation though. Try to ease into it. See how they’re reacting. Usually a leader will want the best situation for the organization, which is having the team members motivated and wanting to come to work and do a good job.
3. Audit and Adapt
Once you start on the change you want to set times to check in and assess how things are going. You kind of go through the daily grind. It can be easy to get caught in that. Time will fly. Change won’t happen. But you also don’t want to be assessing things every day. The change occurs in small steps and checking too often can lead to frustration that you’re not making progress.
If you figure a change will take three months. Check in weekly or every other week on the progress. Maybe you’ve been working on projects with someone that you don’t get along with. You might need to finish up existing projects and then focus on getting new projects that don’t have that other person. Check in every other week on the progress towards that goal.
Final Thoughts
Change is difficult. We usually think of change as happening fast and effectively. Just a big change and our life is on the right track. But that is almost never the case. Changes, big and small, are often the result of making incremental changes for a period of time. Even in the workplace. So take that approach and you’re more likely to see lasting results.