Those of you who have read the book: “Who moved my cheese? An amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life” should know that the entire book is about getting prepared for change and accepting it, and also dealing successfully with its consequences.
Therefore, the lessons learned from the book can help those people who want to master change, and hopefully emerge victorious from a crisis situation.
In other words, the book targets those people who are called, or want to call themselves, “winners”.
What about “losers”, then?
In fact, “losers” could represent what is called “resistance to change”.
Successful change management heavily depends on dealing effectively with resistance to change.
Thus, in order for someone to implement change management in his or her work and life successfully, he or she should ignore and rise above all those voices advising him or her to stick to the past; otherwise he or she won’t be able to go ahead and progress.
That is easier said than done, though.
We all part of an environment, which can be a family or work environment, or any other environment, and we are connected to other people who are also part of that environment.
How easy is it for us to progress in life, and leave behind all those people who are close to us?
Let’s take, for example, Hem, the little human from “Who moved my cheese?”.
He was stuck in his old ways, and, in fact, he was so stubborn that there was no way for Haw, the other little human in the book, to persuade him to forget the past and start searching for better luck.
I’m sure that we all know people who remind us of Hem.
Actually, we could be like Hem ourselves.
I don’t think it’s easy to persuade people who are close to us to change their ways and mind, in order for them to improve and get out of a dead-end situation.
Why is that?
Because, as people get older and settled, they get used to their own ways and don’t want to change them.
Another reason could be that they may have a chronic illness that holds them back.
Yes, suffering from an illness is a situation that change management books do not seem to take into account.
I mean, let’s imagine this scenario: A family member of mine is stuck in a wheelchair for the whole of his or her life. I, on the other hand, am a smart and highly successful person, and whatever I touch turns to gold, literally. Why should I bother about what would happen to him or her? Instead, since he or she can’t follow me on my path to success in life, no matter how I sorry I feel for him or her, I should continue my own way, and leave him or her behind. At least, this is what change management says about those who can’t adapt to change, regardless of whether this is their own fault, or not.
It is not (or shouldn’t be) like that in real life, though.
I believe that a person’s value should not be estimated on the basis of what he or she possesses, but in terms of what he or she can give.
Yes, a truly wealthy person is a person who gives.
What is wealth worth, when someone keeps it for himself or herself, and hides it in a secret Aladdin’s cave that he or she has the only key?
It’s like it doesn’t exist.
Actually, there are proverbs, like: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, telling us that it is pointless to try to change people’s lifelong habits.
This, however, does not mean that there is no other option for us but to leave to their own fate those people who can’t or don’t want to change.
This article was originally published by me on Medium.com
You can read it here.