Making a Change for the Better

One of our colleagues told a story recently about a boss he once had. It seems the boss was brought in to a company that was in trouble, and that needed a lot of change throughout the organization to right itself. Not everybody at the company was embracing his efforts to change things, for a variety of reasons. That’s somewhat understandable.

Change can be painful sometimes, and it can also take a ton of energy. But in this case, it was necessary. If the employees didn’t change, they were going to be out of jobs. So he rallied everyone at a big meeting and told the following story:It seems that the boss grew up in a very stable home. So stable, in fact, that the furnishings of the living room of that home hadn’t changed the entire time he was growing up. The boss went away to collage one September, and when he came home for Thanksgiving 10 weeks later, the entire living room was different. New furniture. New drapes. A new layout. New paint on the walls.

The boss hated it. He was freaked out and told his mother so. “How could you change things? I liked them the way they were.”

The boss’s mother was a wise woman. “Everything changes,” she said. “Whether we like it or not. The important thing to remember is that you have the power and the ability to change things.”

Sometimes we may get stuck in a rut. And sometimes life in that rut can be comfortable. But it doesn’t always mean it’s a good life, or that it’s healthy, or that you’re being the best you that you can possibly be.

Our friend’s boss, the one who didn’t like the living room layout, knew all that when he gathered his employees. He laid out the situation, and he asked them a simple question: Do you have the guts to leave the rut?

We think you do. Leave that rut. Whatever it is.