Managing Change

This week I started a new job with AiTech.  I'm very excited to be a part of their team.  I have to admit that the whole experience caught me off guard.   As a consultant to businesses I work with them to manage change all the time.  In fact they usually come to me when they are on their way into a big change.  So this experience has been really good for me.

I had heard grumblings of a possible buy out but those kind of rumors are always around in a small company.  So...I tried not to get too caught up in them.  We'd been down that road before and been all anxious for no good reason.  I had not taken any time to think through the idea of working for another company.  Especially because the owners of Superior had done a great job of keeping everything on the down low.  When I heard there would be an announcement last Friday I had no Idea what was happening.  Much less clue who would acquire us.

At first I was very excited.  More customers to call on,  more resources,  more engineers,  nicer office, smaller commute.  After my first week, I'm glad to report that those feelings still ring true.  I was most shocked by the challenge I had this week giving up certain responsibilities.  For the last 7 years I've spent most of my time in a very autonomous state.  Most decisions fell on me and I was used to making the call.  An experience that I will always value.  So, while I was grateful to have lots of new help this week I was also afraid that somehow I would not measure up.

People always say that the school of hard knocks is good for you.  You learn to fend for yourself and make decisions.  Yep...thats true.  I'm not sure you always make the best decisions.  But you make progress and thats important.  I'm learning to trust the people around me that I just started working with.  I'm learning to give up old challenges and take on new ones.  I'm learning to trust in an additional group of engineers to carry out the projects we are proposing. Change takes most people by surprise so I guess I can give myself a week to adapt.  I must say.  I can't imagine a better fit for working with me than the team at AiTech.  They did everything they could to make me feel comfortable this week.  I even got a couple of nice new pens that gladly I have not lost yet.

I guess the best way to manage change is to give up some control.  To allow everyone to be authentic.  To start by trusting.  Start by giving.  Keep communicating.  Thats what I'm going to focus on as we move forward.  I'm excited to see what happens!