Understanding Change and its Effect on Timescales

Being flexible and adaptable to change opens the door to improved communication, the building of relationships – business or personal – and endless opportunities to create new possibilities.

Pros and Cons

In the workplace, change can have a negative or positive effect, depending on your perspective. If you work in a competitive environment change can present itself as a challenge or threat, and can be sudden or slow in manifestation. Whatever form it takes change is unavoidable and understanding the pros and cons of it can help you deal with the impact that change will cause.

Adopting a positive attitude to any changes that come your way will enable you to identify opportunities. These could be beneficial to you, your team or workforce, or your company. They could also be detrimental however. Choosing to view any potential change in a positive way will inspire you to see the opportunity to explore the challenge it delivers.

Open Your Mind

Approaching change with an open mind frees you to review, revise and make fresh plans. It enables you to grow and expand your ideas and remain up-to-date within the working environment. Without change, of any form, your working day would be stagnant and unproductive, and you would be uninspired and unchallenged. Accepting change as a positive break in your current plans will enable you to adapt the changes to fit in with your timescales.

If you find yourself resisting change take a moment to ask yourself why you are doing this. It may be that you doubt the level of your skills or ability, or feel uncomfortable about having to compete at work. Use the opportunity that this change brings to provide stimulus for personal and business growth.

Win Win

Technological changes can offer instant positive results that can help you free up time. Mastering and using this new information technology will create opportunities to improve efficiency, productivity and knowledge. With regards to timescales these changes can speed up the way you work. You may have to train to stay up-to-date with technological developments, although doing so will offer many rewards. All changes will bring direct or indirect benefits, and it is important to realise which one will be offered to you.

Restrictive timescales can benefit from the introduction of change in a positive way. Having to impose a change to a task or project, at short notice for instance, can create an opportunity to view the task from a different perspective, which in turn provides new ways of working and dealing with the problem.

To understand change you will have to acknowledge the various types of change possible. Change can come in a gradual or radical form, with extremes in short and long-term contexts. It can also be proactive or reactive. How you choose to accept change will affect the possible outcome of the impact it has on the timescale, work, task or project. Planning for a positive result will help you direct the change.

Things to Remember:

• Change can be negative or positive. Choose which outcome you would rather have.
• Accepting that change is inevitable will allow you to revise, review and make new plans.
• You are in charge of directing changes. Understanding how change impacts on your work will enable you to see the potential benefits.