How We Handle Change – Mostly, We Resist it!
First of all, I hope that wherever you are reading this week’s article, you are healthy and well. And likewise, for your family or friends or whoever is around you (meaning the new normal – 6 feet from you). It’s time for all of us to be responsible and making adult choices to keep each other safe.
Today, I found myself wondering what I was going to write about that would be useful in this uncertain time of ours.
After sitting down and sipping on a brilliant cup of Tetley’s Tea (watch the short video below), I came up with a topic that I hope you will find moving.
In fact, it is all about how we handle change.
Who Moved the Cheese?
The story starts with a recent coaching client of mine telling me about a book he had read called “Who moved my cheese?” by Spencer Johnson.
I had heard the name before but not read the book. However, my client’s enthusiasm was contagious, and with a good cuppa, I had a go at it.
The story features four characters: two mice, “Sniff” and “Scurry,” and two Little people, affectionately called “Hem” and “Haw.” (The names of the Little people come from the phrase “hem and haw,” a term for indecisiveness.)
They live in a maze, representing one’s current environment. Their job, aim, and focus is to look for cheese, a metaphor for a happy and successful life. Initially, without any cheese, the mice and humans paired off and traveled the lengthy corridors in search of cheese.
A Mouse Knew How to Handle Change
One day both groups happen upon a cheese-filled corridor at “Cheese Station C.” Content with their find, the humans establish routines around their daily intake of cheese. A type of independent arrogance infiltrates their psyche. Life is good, and they are in control.
One day Sniff and Scurry ( the mice) arrive at “Cheese Station C” to find that there is no cheese left. Not unexpected. The supply had been dwindling, and they knew that soon they would need to find cheese elsewhere.
Leaving “Cheese Station C” behind, they begin their hunt for new cheese together.
Humans Struggled With Themselves More Than The Change Itself
Later that day, Hem and Haw (the little people) arrive at “Cheese Station C” only to find the same thing, no cheese.
Angered and annoyed, Hem demands, “Who moved my cheese?” The humans assumed the cheese supply to be constant. Now they find themselves utterly unprepared for the situation. A Change will be required, and that triggers their reaction.
The rest of the book follows the different journeys and experiences that Sniff and Scurry have versus Hem and Haw.
Colorful and insightful, this book uses metaphors to help us see how we handle or don’t handle change.
COVID-19 has moved everyone’s cheese
When our world changes, we still have choices. We can choose to react to the things that are going on around us or we choose to respond to them.
It is your attitude and the way that you look at your situation which will determine what you do about it.
I love the quote from Stephen King, who said: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
How to Go to Work When You are Not To Leave Home
So, in making the choice to ‘get up and go to work,’ here are some “forget about it” responses for you to consider, now that your cheese has moved.
- Forget about yourself, focus on others
- Forget about your commodity, focus on relationships
- Forget about your losses, focus on your opportunities
- Forget about your difficulties, focus on your progress
- Forget about what’s missing, focus on what’s available
- Forget about your complaints, focus on your gratitude
- Forget about the sale, focus on creating value
- Forget about who you were, focus on who you can be
What can you do right now? What choices are you going to make, and why?
Four ways how we at Fiore Group Training Are Choosing to Respond
Focus on Relationships:
Having been virtual for the past two weeks, we have been getting organized, and we will soon start holding ZOOM meetings with our clients and team to stay connected.
Focus on Your Opportunities:
We have had the opportunity to build a kitted-out studio in the basement of our house so that I can deliver virtual training sessions to our clients.
Focus on Creating Value:
For the past several months, we have been working on the development of a brand-new on-line version of our Leadership Accelerator Program (LAP). It will launch in the next few weeks. However, instead of charging for access to it, we have decided that for the first four weeks following its launch, we will offer it free to each of our clients.
AND if you are not a client yet, please contact us for the Promo code, which will save you $500 off of the regular price of $597 per registration!
Focus on What’s Available:
We are also pivoting our weekly newsletter (which goes out to almost 2,000 email addresses each Wednesday) to include more inspirational and motivational elements. We are adding it as a video blog and a podcast. Look for Living Leadership coming soon!
So what about You?
Those are just 4 of the ways that we are moving in response to our missing cheese. What have you done or what will you do?
Are You Still Stuck for Ideas?
If you are at home with your kids, have some spare time on your hands and are wondering how you can be a bit creative? Use what you’ve got. Take a look: with the stuff that you have around your home (which you don’t need anymore), maybe this video with inspire you! Whatever you do, stay healthy and safe.
