Change gears

Changing Perspectives
Rutendo Gwatidzo

THE moment you enter a new season, there are certain things that should just change.

This particularly applies to things that diminish in relevance with the new season. No matter how much one may love summer tops, when winter arrives, they should be put away. They should then give room to winter tops. The same concept applies to every aspect of life.

There are certain things that we need to let go as days, months, years and seasons go by. Doing the same things again and again, while expecting a different result is another definition of insanity, according to one author. Life is lived in phases and these stages require different gears.

For instance, primary school can be gear number one; secondary school can be gear number two; followed by university and the corporate world as gear number three and gear number four, respectively. You may find that once you get in the market place, you may still need to engage gear number five, called relevance; and gear number six, named growth and expansion.

This illustration simply shows that life is or should be progressive and not constant. The effort required to achieve favourable results at university is way more than that needed at primary school. Using the same efforts throughout the different stages of life is a recipe for disaster.

Organisational status

One of the reasons teams are failing to perform is the inability to adjust and change gears. The same way a vehicle changes gears on different roads and terrains is the same way teams should learn to master the concept.

Covid-19 brought about many demands and among them was the need to go online in terms of business operations.

Some situations demanded online meetings, and others online marketing and online visibility in general. We have teams that failed to change course or to change gears to match the new business demands and those teams are struggling.

Change is not an easy thing, especially when it takes a person out of his or her comfort zone.

Changing gears may sound simple, but it is not easy. Sadly, change should happen, whether we like it or not. When you want to slow down or park a car, for example, a change-down of gears must be done. As a manager in an organisation, have you prepared yourself for safe landing upon retirement or upon expiry of your term?

Have you mentored someone to take that place? Have you received mentorship for your next assignment? One of the secrets of change is avoiding wasting time fighting change. Learn to embrace change and to quickly take baby steps until you are able to walk and run again. As the world was coming out of Covid-19, resumption of business operations was done gradually until where we are now.

Changing gears is not something that should be done abruptly for it can cause danger and harm. Take heed if you see the need to change direction in what you are doing; do not ignore it, otherwise you end up being controlled by the gears.

For instance, if you see a curve sign ahead or a hump sign ahead when driving, you need to change down the gears.

Come to think of it, how many warning signs did you ignore before you found yourself in trouble? How many meetings did you miss and how many reports did you fail to submit? How many targets did you fail to reach before the manager called you in for a hearing? Why do you seem surprised when you get dismissed or demoted from that position?

You probably had the chance to request training, guidance or mentorship, but you probably decided to ignore this.

You probably had the chance to change the direction of your vehicle before reaching a dead end, but you ignored the warning signs. Let us look at the Covid-19 pandemic, for instance. A significant number of people lost their lives as a result of refusing to shift gears. Some continued meeting in public places and partying when they were not supposed to.

Others had warning signs like headaches, fever or flu, but decided to ignore them, until the symptoms became too strong for them. Yet others simply thought the change was not necessary and they got consumed in the process.

Learn to embrace change

No matter how many times you may try to get out of a room through the wall, you may keep hurting yourself till you bleed out. All you may need is to change direction to find the door. However, your goal of getting out of the room still remains the same. If the plan you had for this year did not work, sometimes all you need is to change the plan, not the goal, for next year.

As we are nearing the end of the year, strategise for the upcoming year and use gears that are suitable for the road terrain. The ability to change is one of the winning strategies of life.

You already have it within you to manage change, if you are willing. If, as a driver, you are capable of changing gears from one to six and also backwards, then you still can change strategies around your life, your career or business, as well as other areas, till you find one that works.

The challenge is that many have become lazy; they prefer automatic cars that will do the changing for them, forgetting that they still need to control the brakes and accelerator.

Be alert, vigilant, strategic and willing to move according to the seasons of life, and to change gears so that you do not get left behind.

Rutendo Gwatidzo is a culture and change management strategist. She is an HR consultant, speaker, mentor and author of the book “Born to Fight”. She was on the Institute of Corporate Directors Zimbabwe’s list of 40 Most Influential Leaders in Zimbabwe 2022. Contact details 0714575805/ [email protected] / Rutendo Gwatidzo official fb public page.