Adapting to Change

As a member of the Professional Development Committee, I had the privilege to moderate the “Adapting to Change” session presented by Scott Rolph, Talent Development Consultant, during the 2021 DSL SEABoard Professional Development Conference at MIT. Scott shared a framework comprising three main phases on how we react to change: (1) Ending, Losing, Letting Go; (2) The Neutral Zone; (3) The New Beginning. This framework applies to all areas of our life. It helps us diagnose where we are and be mindful of the change process.

Now, my story.

In March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, my boss told me: "Gabi, pack as you were going to work from home for two weeks." I went home that day, and I literally counted two weeks. It's been 11 months now. Because I held onto that word, it was so hard for me to let it go. I love to work in the office (the people, the environment, my desk) and could never imagine myself working from home. It took me three months to overcome the "Ending, Losing, Letting Go" phase. I lived it all: minimized and denied the impact of a pandemic ("you will be back in 2 weeks!"), complained about my room that it was now an office where I would sleep, messed up with my schedule, changed days with nights, got frustrated with the lack of productivity, doubted that that situation would last too long. The Summer came, and everything changed again.

"The Neutral Zone," here we go!

From June to October, I started to see new opportunities in absolutely everything. I got involved in lots of voluntary projects inside and out of MIT, woke up at 4:45 am for 40 days to see the sunrise at the beach, exercised like never before, started to eat healthier by cooking my food, wrote a lot, focused on what was necessary for each day, found energy and motivation by changing my bedroom office to lake office, beach office, everywhere office. Took a Change Management course with my dear professor Rob Anthony as part of the Hult Lifelong Learning Program. Understood that life (our life) changed forever, the world would never be the same again, and that creativity would be a valuable asset to fix many problems that would arise with the crisis.

November came, and I started to envision "The New Beginning" ahead.

I embraced the process and embraced the change, and accepted the new. I understood this was an incredible opportunity to strengthen my capacities. I understood that CHANGE is significantly related to what we carry inside of us. It felt so good to GROW while I adapted to - perhaps - one of the biggest changes in this world.