Let’s admit it: Almost none of us much like change. Oh sure, we say we do, especially when the change is our idea. And we can even enthusiastically get behind some types of change.
But disruptive change — where teams get shifted, the company’s strategy pivots or new leadership is brought in — that’s the kind that unsettles us. Yet, that kind of change — disruptive change — is becoming more and more common in business today, and HR is often expected to cheerlead it.
So it’s a bold admission when Lindsay Evans confessed to a DisruptHR audience last spring in Philadelphia that she is risk averse.
“I do self-identify as risk averse,” said Evans, Director of Talent at Chatham Financial. “Our activities of organizing, structuring, planning, having processes and predictability makes us good at our jobs.”
Yet, “I can also be a change agent.” That may seem like a contradiction, but it makes sense when Evans explains that there are benefits to being a “change averse change agent.”
What are they? Click into her 5 minute DisruptHR Philadelphia talk to find out. Here’s a teaser: She, and other change averse and those of us merely change hesitant, can empathize with those experiencing the change so we are able to better manage the change successfully.
Note: In partnership with DisruptHR, TLNT presents some of the best Disrupt presentations from events across North America and now the world. Disrupt talks are modeled on the TEDx concept: Short, to the point talks on all things HR — talent, culture and technology.