Dealing with changes
After 3 years of adventures in Nasdaq, the company that I worked for just decided to become a private company again.
Being in a company known for agile always has surprises like this. Surprises can also be received in many different ways. Our IPO surprise was mostly received as a celebration, whereas the perception of the most recent go private decision is more or less mixed.
While I do hope to gain more benefits from our stock, I personally do feel going private isn’t a bad thing for our company at all. However, I acknowledge such complicated topics will always have various different perspectives to look at.
For myself, I regard it as something I couldn’t control or can hardly influence. What I can do (most effectively) is to adapt.
Generally, I find several behavioural patterns when people deal with changes:
- Go with it - I tend to do this, as I am very inspried by the book Who Moved My Cheese? ; however, being adaptive can also be dangerous when the change does more harm than good;
- Change the change - Some people will fight against the change when it’s necessary;
- Be angry at it - I acknowledge this sometimes might be inevitable, but I personally don’t think it brings any benefits. Conversely, it destroys our inner peace and turns us into a worse version;
- Give up - Do nothing about the change, until everything has happened. If people are lucky, sometimes this can bring about good outcomes too. I wouldn’t choose this because I don’t want to resent if the fate doesn’t stand on my side.
What is good? What is bad? Maybe there is not always a correct answer; however, staying vigilant and being ready for changes are never wrong. At the end of the day, that is all what being agile is about, isn’t it?