I’ve been off schedule because I’ve just moved house, hopefully for the last time in a long time!
It’s really true how much stress this change can bring to you, even though you signed up to it and knew it was going to happen.
So rather than a big long essay about how houses and software are similar (It Depends is not just a software phrase!), I thought I’d give you a chance to reflect a bit on that change, as it’s common to so many of us.
It’s something that’s mostly within our control, where we decide the when, where and how but it’s still really hard work. Whether that’s the size of the change, the new location, the costs or the disruption to daily life, it’s a big impact that can take a lot out of you.
So think about changes where there’s less control to the people undergoing the change. A re-org or change of priorities at work. It’s smaller than uprooting your whole life, but maybe it isn’t to the people it’s impacting in that moment.
Even worse if you live and breathe the change for ages before it happens. You can fall into the trap of thinking it’s smaller than it is.
Go back to moving house, you thought it was easy to cope with, but when you do it, it turns out it wasn’t. Again, you had more control there, the reality didn’t match the story you told.
You need to think about how to communicate changes, think back to these big changes to remind you when things were tough, and build your message with empathy and care.
James Osborn 