How to Survive Change . . . You Didn't Ask for. M. J. Ryan

Читать онлайн книгу.

How to Survive Change . . . You Didn't Ask for - M. J. Ryan


Скачать книгу
the Three Blessings

       Cultivate Your Witness Self

       Stay Open to Miracles

       Find the Gift in the Change

       STEP 2: EXPAND YOUR OPTIONS

       What Helps You Expand Your Thinking?

       How Does Your Self-Concept Need to Change?

       Seek Information Outside Your Box

       Hedge Your Bets

       Kill Your Little Darlings

       Tap Into Your Inner Resources

       What Other Resources Are Available?

       Be Like the Native Americans

       Create the Necessary Reserves

       Don't Go into the Wilderness Without Your Compass

       What Are Your Inner Talents?

       Reexamine Your Priorities

       Envision Your Next Chapter

       Who Do You Need by Your Side?

       Watch the Road, Not the Potholes

       STEP 3: TAKE ACTION

       Create a Story of Possibility

       Make Deposits into Your Hope Account

       Hope Is Not a Plan

       Get the Balls in the Air

       Think Through the Implications

       Just Do One Thing

       Ready, Fire, Aim

       Evaluate Progress

       If You're Not Stretching, You're Probably Missing Something

       Do What's Needed

       Build Your Brand

       Get More Connected

       Create a Change Masters Circle

       Use an Inspiring Mantra to Keep Up Your Spirits

       Focus on the Upside of Scaling Back

       Allow Your Circumstances to Open Your Heart

       STEP 4: STRENGTHEN ADAPTABILITY

       Become a Lifelong Learner

       Reflect on Your Learnings

       IV. Twenty Quick Tips for Surviving Change You Didn't Ask For

       V. Resources for More Support

       FOR PERSONAL SUPPORT FROM ME

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I

      Welcome to “Permanent White Water”

      It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

      —Charles Darwin

      THESE ARE CHALLENGING TIMES. If you're reading this, chances are you're confronting some change you never asked for—perhaps a loss of job. Or some dream. Maybe you have to learn to work in new ways or find a new place to live. I'm sorry if it's difficult. I'm hoping that within these pages you'll find the support and the practices you need to successfully ride the wave of this change, whatever it may be.

      Take comfort that you're not alone. In my work as a “thinking partner,” I spend a lot of time speaking to people in all walks of life, from the CEO of a joint venture in Saudi Arabia to a stay-at-home mom who needs to enter the workforce. From where I sit, whether they are searching for a job, looking for funding for a startup, trying to stay relevant at age sixty in a large corporation, dealing with lost savings, coping with a big new job that has one hundred direct reports, struggling to get donations for a nonprofit, or fearing losing their home due to unemployment, people of all ages and walks of life are scrambling to deal with vast changes happening today in every part of the world.

      Take the publishing industry, where I've spent thirty years, first as an editor of a weekly newspaper, then as an editor of monthly magazines, a book publisher, and now, for the past seven years, an author. None of the companies I worked for are still in existence. Neither are the distributors. One of my dear friends, a top writer at the Washington Post, just took a buyout because the newspaper can't afford to pay top talent—even the most prestigious papers are drowning in red ink. How we create, distribute, market, and promote media products is completely different from even a few years ago. Where it is all heading we truly have no idea. Phil Bronstein, former publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, declared recently, “Anybody who professes to be able to tell you what things will be like in ten years is on some kind of drug.”

      And that's only one corner of the evolving big picture. In 2006, creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson, speaking at the TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) stated, “We have no idea of what's going to happen in the future. No one has a clue about what the world will be like in even five years.”

      The only thing any of us can know for certain is that life will continue to change at a rapid pace because the world has gotten more complex and interdependent. Organizational consultant Peter Vail calls this “permanent white water,” referring to a time of ongoing uncertainty and turbulence. We can't see exactly where these changes are headed or where the submerged rocks are, yet when we're tossed out of


Скачать книгу