If I Had A Second Chance to Deal With the Change

In our discussion, we talked a lot about change strategies. It not only benefit a change agency in understanding how to promote and process a change, but also help people ideal with changes in their lives.  One point emphasized in our class discussion is that we need to be open to changes, and try to adapt to them if it has been initiated. If we keep resisting those inevitable changes, it may bring negative effect to the organization and ourselves. One example is my second semester in high school.

In the first semester, I was in a Level-B class. In the beginning of the second semester, I choose to be a student of liberal art, and got upgraded to a Level-A class. It was a big change for me, and I messed it up in that semester. Most of the 64 students in this new class were originally from other Level-A classes, so that they knew each other and they were generally recognized as the smartest and most promising students in the school. I felt honored, but also margined when joining this class. I was embarrassed about my background and thought I was less intelligent than my classmates. What was worse, I had no friend here, and felt uncomfortable to make friends with those studying machines. Therefore, I resisted to the change, to the new teachers and classmates hugely, and always went to other classes to see my old friends. In the end of that term, my grade went down severely, and I felt lonely and stupid.

If I had a second change to deal with this change, I would do it differently. First, I will make myself understand that this is a change I have to embrace, and I will benefit a lot from it. At that time, my mind was so locked in my small circle that I gave up many changes to see the world outside. I should have been more open-minded and step out to meet new people and try new ways of learning.  Second, I will better define my position in the new class. I was very unconfident about my learning ability when comparing with other students from Level-A classes. However, I should have known that since I was selected to join them, I was fully qualified for this. Also, I ranked in the middle, but not the last in the beginning of the semester. If I had had analyzed these facts and evaluated myself properly, I could have an optimistic attitude in the new semester. Third, I will avoid my biased assumptions about the new classmates and try to know people around me better. At that time, I just assumed that they were studying machines that were only interested in taking exams. Therefore, I decided that we would have nothing in common and could not be friends.  Apparently my assumption was not true. Only when I began to communicate with them later did I realize how similar we were and how much we enjoyed the company of each other. The stereotype of the best students colored their images in my eyes and contributed to my resistant to the change and the new group.

There are a lot of unavoidable changes in life. Despite our resistance to them, those changes take place anyway. Denial and resistance may be our first reaction to them, but never the best. The only choice leaf to us is to adapt to them. Beside our own effort to handle them, the organizations or the groups involved in the changes should also support individuals as much as possible in the change process. In the change described above, if I were a teacher in that class, I would do more to support students like me.  First, I will try to promote the new identity of the class. I will make it explicit that although students bring different backgrounds, they are equally important and appreciated in this group.  By creating a vision of friendship and mutual support, I could help eliminate some students’ sense of inferiority and union the class. Second, the specific issues with some students will be the hurdles in the change, and I will be responsible to help the students overcome them via communication. There are probably issues that are not addressed in large group communication and need to be discussed in a more private setting. As a teacher in the new class, if I notice that there is one mal-performing student, I would have an open conversation with her and find out the root of problem and help solve it.  Third, besides the fulfillment of the group task, I will concern more about the social relationship of the group. As a teacher, I will not only focus on the grades of my students, but the interaction among them. Although the people issue seems to be minor since each student study for himself, it could influence the dynamic of the class in a long term, and consequently affect the performance of each student.  Only when these issued are adequately addressed, can the group develop healthily in the future.