Change in 4D

Wendy Wickham

• Publisher: Atmosphere Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781648261862
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Negocios en general

The Personal Change Toolkit We are overwhelmed by changes. Changes we feel we need to make to ourselves to be more efficient, effective, energetic, and nicer to be around. Changes that others inflict on us as they pursue their agendas. Changes to the environments we work within that feel uncontrollable and unpredictable. Society asks us to "get comfortable with change." Change, however, is a process - not an event. Change in 4D provides a comprehensive toolkit to guide you through this process and help you make the changes you wish to make in your life. In this book, Wendy Wickham provides detailed guidance based on current behavior change research, proven practices from the fields of project management, change management, and adult education, and 20+ years in the trenches as an organizational change specialist. You will find practical tools and techniques for defining and prioritizing your goals, working with challenging people, finding resources, making time, and overcoming obstacles. This book will help raise the odds of your change sticking as you put these tools into practice, helping you become the person you want to be.

Chapter 1

Change in 4D

 

 

Seventy to ninety percent of all change initiatives FAIL.¹

With all the research and discussion around change and change management, why are we so abysmal at it?

Why does it seem like we are executing MORE change initiatives and going nowhere?

I hypothesize that our struggles with change at the personal scale translate to struggles at the organizational scale. All the talk about “change” and “getting good at change” and “being agile” falls flat if we can’t do it for ourselves and if we don’t know what successful, directed change looks like on a personal level.

 

Change in 4D

 

To gain clarity around where we are and where we want to be, I invite you to look at change holistically. I see change as having 4 dimensions:

 

Dimension 1: I, or the self. How does the change impact me and what do I need to become and do to make my vision real?

Dimension 2: Others, or other people. How does the change impact the other people in my life and what support and resistance am I likely to encounter?

Dimension 3: Environment, such as tools, systems, processes, materials, etc. How does the change impact the environment I am in and does my current environment support this change?

Dimension 4: Time. What are my expectations for this change in the short-term and longer-term and how do I anticipate the other three dimensions evolving as I make this change?

 

The Change in 4D Model

 

What makes planning so challenging is that we have a limited perspective of what is truly happening as we make changes in our lives. It is much like trying to look at a 4D hypersphere in 3D and 2D. The level of complexity, as well as the level of accuracy, decreases as we move through the dimensions. When an artist tries to draw a 4D hypersphere in 2D, they are trying to accommodate north/south, east/west, up/down, and time.²

If you were trying to view a 4D hypersphere in your 3D world, you will see what looks like an expanding and contracting sphere. Most of us live and work in 3D—our immediate environment. We’re not seeing that 4^th dimension. As a result, we are seeing a partially accurate representation of what is really happening.

The same dynamic occurs in our lives. We see our perspective in the now, we might even see what is happening within our immediate environment and the behaviors of those surrounding us in the now, but we are not seeing the time dimension—especially in the future. The Change in 4D model accommodates all dimensions—I, Others, the Environment, and Time.

As you work with the Change in 4D model, consider I the up/down axis. This is your perspective on and interpretation of your environment. You can then define the other axis as Others—North/South, and Environment—East/West—even though, in practical life, others and environment are one big thing seemingly outside of yourself.

 

The “Now” perspective in the Change in 4D model

 

As you develop a higher perspective on your environment and the number of Others you consider in that environment, our view looks much like a 3D sphere moving through a 2D environment. The environment and others look like an expanding and contracting circle, with I in the middle.

 

What changing and broadening your perspective looks like

in the Change in 4D model

 

It is much easier to focus on the people and environment you can readily see. Accommodating a higher perspective on your environment is more complex; there are more variables and you are accounting for more people, systems, materials that may well be on the fringes, but could still have a major impact on your activities.

The 4^th dimension is Time. Many people have an uncomfortable relationship with time, myself included. We view what is happening now through the lens of the past or the future. We predict what will happen based on assumptions that may or may not be accurate. We focus on the “now” while ignoring the things in the “now” that don’t fit into our desired perspective.

Time is the spiral in this model. The P is your desired destination at a specific point in time

 

Each of us goes through periods of expansion and contraction. Sometimes, the expansion or contraction happens by choice. For example, you sign up for guitar lessons (expansion) or opt out of a long-standing volunteer obligation (contraction). Often, it happens because it happens—you get assigned a large project at work (expansion) or get sick (contraction).

Each of us goes through seasons and periods of focus and life throws you curveballs that strongly encourage you to change your priorities. For example, you develop plans to grow your business, then find yourself dealing with a health crisis. You decide to focus your efforts on career growth, then your family demands your attention. You create investment strategies, then receive a huge, unexpected bill.

There are options for dealing with these challenges. You can ignore the universal call-to-attention you are receiving and keep on your planned path, mindfully pivot to focus on the call-to-attention, or attempt to merge your desired goals with the call-to-attention. None of these options are wrong and some will require more struggle than others. It’s your choice.

You can only accurately see what is immediately around you. The past you interpret through your specific lens and your estimation of what is most likely going to happen is most accurate the closer you are to now. If your life is simple, you might be able to predict further down the road.

In 4D change, you are looking to work with what you have and mindfully make steps towards your vision. At times, you need to do something radical; but thankfully, most of the time, you can work gradually and in small steps. My goal for this model is to allow you to make the changes you wish to see in your life in a way that reduces undue stress.

Life, and change, is a journey. Let’s get started.

 

 

Chapter 2

The Change Journey

“Panta Rhei (Life is flux)” — Heraclitus¹

This quote speaks to how time passes. We grow and change—physically, mentally, and emotionally. We develop skills, change jobs, move, create and discard habits. People come in and out of our lives. Plants grow and die. The weather shifts and morphs. In this chapter, I want to talk about the time dimension of the model.

The time dimension in action

Our current culture seems to have forgotten that change and the change journey takes time. Change is not a singular event: it requires repetition. Change is not instantaneous: it requires time and effort. Change is not isolated: it both impacts and is impacted by the environment and the people within it. Change is not a singular destination: it requires iteration.

Whenever someone thinks about making a change, that person is defining what they want their experience of life to be. Any place where you wish to embark on a change journey is where you want to experience something new or different. That experience will happen both within the process of change and as you maintain the results of that process.

Some of these experiences will be uncomfortable. That is to be expected. My goal is to help you mitigate some of that discomfort, as well as to help you get clear on what you want to experience. Knowing that change is a journey, the types of hazards you may find on that journey, and that there are tools that will help you overcome those hazards will help increase your chances of success. One of the key tools that will help you on this journey is developing a Growth Mindset.

Growth Mindset

When I started school in Northern Virginia in the mid-1970s, the school system applied a battery of tests to determine the trajectory of each child’s educational experience. These tests “labeled” the child for the duration of that child’s K-12 educational experience.

I was lucky. They labeled me “gifted.” This label provided opportunities outside of the standard classroom and gave me a more flexible, experiential education. My brother, arguably the smarter and definitel...