Change Happens; How You Respond Matters

An entire department is balking at inclusive access. The campus library wants to set up its own print-on-demand facility for open resources. A general merchandise order timed for rush arrives three weeks late, again.

Cassandra Worthy knows that feeling. As she told CAMEX 2020 attendees during the Opening Session and Keynote in New Orleans, she’s been there many times. But she has discovered a strategy to convert those feelings into productive action in a process she calls Change Enthusiasm. It involves just three simple steps:

• Signal—Acknowledge the negative feelings (fear, anxiety, anger, grief, frustration) that arise from a circumstance or situation.
• Opportunity—Recognize the alternatives that are available to you.
• Choice—Make a proactive decision to pursue a positive, productive option.

College stores can apply these steps to just about any scenario. “Change is here to stay and no one is immune to it,” Worthy noted. She described a couple of personal experiences that led her to come up with the Change Enthusiasm process.

With a degree in chemical engineering, she went to work for Proctor & Gamble. After a few years of working in one line of business, P&G moved her to a different line. “Day one, I walked into a completely different world,” she recalled. These employees used different terminology and tools, followed different procedures, and embraced a different work culture. Right away she had a difficult time fitting in.

“I felt lost and frustrated, like a fish out of water,” she said. Things came to a head one day after she’d spent considerable time compiling a detailed report. Worthy found out that a colleague discussed her data and conclusions with senior management—without her. When she complained to her manager, she was brushed off.

Her feelings of anger continued to build, fueled by lunchtime commiserations with other co-workers who had been transferred to the unit and were experiencing similar problems. Those feelings were the signal, she later realized.

Eventually, Worthy met with a company advisor about her situation, who bluntly told her she could “get bitter or get better.” She admitted she fumed about the advisor’s comment for a time, but then understood it was true. That recognition opened an opportunity.

“I could either quit or remain in a state of misery. Or, I could make a decision to trust P&G had my best interests at heart,” she said.

“I made a conscious, productive choice to bring about better choices,” she added. “Ultimately, it resulted in my writing a series of internal articles on what was working well and where we could make improvements.” She talked with many employees—and listened—“and I discovered why the culture was doing what it was.”

The move paid off. “I was taking responsibility for my own work environment,” Worthy said. “I had people stopping me in the halls and thanking me for the articles. They had opened up conversations with their work teams.” A manager told her the articles helped him understand problems he’d had in trying to integrate teams.

A few years later, her business unit was acquired by another company and, as often happens in mergers, the senior leadership was reducing staff overlap. During a budget review, Worthy’s new manager told her that he didn’t see any value in her position beyond the next two years.

“I was feeling panicked, worthless, and angry,” she said. It took months before she realized that was a signal. Then she saw the opportunity: “My manager gave me two years with pay to explore a new position, either inside or outside.” She chose to work with a senior manager to identify the organization’s needs and within four months she moved into a newly created position.

 "All these changes aren’t happening to you, they’re happening for you,” she stressed.

The two experiences Worthy described involved major moments in her early professional career, but Change Enthusiasm can also help with day-to-day situations in the store as well. However, getting past negative feelings (the signal) in order to recognize opportunities and make choices can take some practice.

Worthy suggested thinking of failures and problems as gifts; find something from each situation to celebrate or to learn from. Take steps to shake yourself out of the negativity, such as going for a walk or listening to music, and allow some time to pass before reacting. With practice, you’ll get from signal to opportunity more quickly, she said.

And then you can move on to making productive choices.