There is something on my mind for a long time. It has nothing to do with design or photography. Or does it?

Intrigued

Changes are a part of life, all things change. The growing of a tree or the change of the seasons. Some changes you don’t notice and some you notice but surprise you. But changes are inevitable. It’s life, if we stop the changes, well… we just die. It’s something I have noticed my whole working life. I’m always open for change, interested in new things and welcome it. At first I didn’t understand that other people couldn’t. I was intrigued about the reason why they couldn’t. I understand now that it’s difficult, even I have difficulties with change. The only difference is that I’m open to it, accept it and try to adapt as well as I can.

Gets easier

In the eighties and nineties changes were enforced on, at the different companies I worked for. That didn’t go all too well. A lot of people complained. That’s because the ones who enforced the changes didn’t take a good look at the work floor, not at the technology or the human side of what changes meant for people. I tried to figure out what they wanted to change and proofed them wrong occasionally. Some managers were open to it. Technology wise I could prove it, the human side of things I was struggling with. I helped a lot of my colleagues with the constant changes of technology and tried to explain that it gets easier if you are open to it and just go with it. After a while it does gets easier, and you start to recognize patterns in the changes.

Perspective of changes

Changes are everywhere, not only at the workfloor, but in our food, our transport systems, our culture, the way we look at things and so many more in life. So slow as the growing of a tree, we might not notice. Sometimes so fast that it surprises us and we don’t understand what happens to us. We are always evolving, learning new things and understand that things from the past are to be handled differently in the changing of times. That’s progress, the evolution of things, it’s there and it won’t go away. You can fight it, try to stop it or speed it up and enforce it. None of those ways won’t get the results you want to and it will hurt you, others and harm any cause you try to achieve with it. There are other ways. Like to try to understand the change, understand what impact it has on people, get the perspective of the changes and work together, with all people involved, to find solutions. For those who have difficulty with changes and for those for which it doesn’t go fast enough.

Controversy

Why am I writing this? It has been in my head for years. I see all the controversy over things on social media and the impossibility to understand each other in so many issues. Also it was something I wanted to shout at my colleagues ánd my bosses. But things are changing 😉 Last week I had a photoshoot at a “change management training” from “The People side of change”. I found it very inspiring and it gave me hope that these ways of implementing changes at organizations are a real benefit for everyone.

Cheers, Ton