The clash between Global Village and Balanced Life Style will create many changes for, and require unprecedented adaptability by, those now working or soon to enter the work force. My earlier articles on the subject defined the problem and began to show some of the impact it would have.
Home life will be affected. Keeping your information and fears bottled up is counter-productive. You need support. Your family must know that they have to be prudent with money. Don’t frighten your spouse unnecessarily but do discuss, calmly and rationally, the implications of what is happening. Start with the global picture and gradually show how this might affect your industry, your company, you and them. You need rational, supportive contributions, not hysteria.
Think together about the longer-term effects of Global Village. Your spouse may be bent on a more Balanced Life Style, especially if it involves helping with the children. Point out that Balanced Life Style comes at a price, which you are not, or may soon not be, in a position to pay.
We devote much training time to Managing Change in Business. We devote none at all to Managing Change in the Home. Yet this is the base from which we go out to work. Without a solid home base we cannot do our jobs. If you are the de facto head of the family you now have to manage change at home. Do it as seriously as you would manage reorganisation in your own company. It will pay you handsomely when the occasion arises.
Make sure that there is a place and time where and when you can work undisturbed at home. This may not be easy but insist on it. You may have to share space with your spouse or the children. If you do, see that it is available exclusively to you for some of the time. Quite apart from the need for this space now, you may need it as your office in the near future.
Even if you are still in a full-time job you will need a minimum resource from which to study the changes taking place and where you can devote yourself to getting a new job or alternative work. A breadwinner, man or woman, who has no private space at home may seek it elsewhere with potentially disastrous consequences.
Equip yourself with the sources of information you need to gauge how quickly the changes are taking place. This may require newspapers and magazines; access to the Internet is a vital component of it. Stockbrokers’ reports can be very helpful if they relate to your industry. Your industry or trade association is a mine of information. If they have a library, get to know the librarian. Librarians are wonderful people, full of information and nearly always willing to help those seeking it.
Talk to your friends in the business, they will be better informed than you think. They have the same worries as you. Most importantly, talk to your boss. Remember, he has anxieties for the same reason that you do. If he values your observations and comments on the industry you may keep your job when others lose theirs. Don’t be shy about doing this. Any reasonable boss likes to see his subordinates taking an interest in the progress of the company and the business.
Keep a small computer file on the things you learn about the business – nothing lengthy, just short notes every few days. You will find them invaluable later on.
It’s the information age. Make use of it.
John Bittleston blogs at TerrificMentors.com, a site that provides mentoring for those who wish a change in career or job, wanting to start a business or looking to improve their handling of people (including themselves).
