from the director's desk
Mandy Marney
Director,
Community
Development
Positive Change
e often talk about Expanding Our Pawprint in the Wildcat District – and this type of growth requires change. I recently read several interesting articles regarding change including A Practical Guide to Positive Change by Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom. Within this guide, the authors contend that when members and stakeholders of an organization are naturally and comfortably powerful, the organization become more capable of innovation, learning, and contributing to the greater good. Isn’t this what we want to accomplish within our district: To become a life centered organization, in which power (the capacity to create, innovate, and positively influence the future) is
an unlimited resource? We strive to be an organization in which people care about and work towards being the very best, one in which people take responsibility for constructing the world they inhabit and making it good for generations to come.
According to Whitney and Trosten-Bloom, “The first step towards liberation of life-centered organizing is when people recognize that the world and their organization is open to social change as created by and through human interaction and creativity.” How we adapt to change is a good indicator of what our success will be as a life centered organization. We can embrace our roles as change agents by learning from positive organizational behavior, as this discipline outlines constructs of people who are adopters of positive change. Here are a few characteristics of people who are powerful change agents:
1) Hope: People who are high in hope are able to generate multiple pathways to accomplishing their goals. Hope must include both agency (goal-directed energy) and pathways (planning to meet goals) as they are complementary to each other.
2) Efficacy: This can best be defined as the person’s conviction or confidence about their abilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources, or courses of action needed to successfully executive a specific task within a given context. Efficacy is directly related to hope. It helps a person believe that they can generate multiple pathways to their goals, and ultimately success, regardless of circumstances.
3) Optimism: People who remain optimistic expect success when faced with change. Optimistic people expect positive outcomes for themselves, regardless of personal ability. They will continue to move forward with positive expectations regardless of past problems or setbacks.
4) Resilience: At the core of resilience is the ability to bounce back (and beyond) from setbacks – to positively cope and adapt to significant changes. People who are resilient are often involved in most organizational change.
Resistance to change from within an organization can be its biggest stumbling block to success. It is important that we continue working together to embrace the characteristics above to work together towards positive change. Below are seven tips to help us stay focused on positive as we are in the midst of change. They are provided by Dr. Brenda Curtwright, who serves as instructor at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine:
1. Know your philosophy.
2. Give thanks often.
3. Embrace change.
4. Use positive self-talk.
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5. Build a support network and use it.
6. Remember the big picture.
7. Be approachable.