I genuinely believe that we live in an exciting era of rapid change. I still remember when the internet first became available to ordinary people. In the 90’s I heard of internet technology used for military communication. By the 90 late ’90s, we could play first shooter games such as Team Fortress. It took us hours to download a simple picture. Now, we can send a High-quality photos through our mobile devices. When I was a child, it took me a long to research anything. By the time I was at the university, I could pull academic papers online. It was common to collaborate on our school projects during my university era over the internet. Who would believe that virtual meetings will become standard at our work?
The rapid environmental change excited me greatly, and my personality contributed to my reaction to some degree. I was not as resilient toward rapid changes when I was young. For the most part, I gained resilience toward rapid changes from training in handling differences and experience. To prepare yourself for rapid changes, you must recognize any threats or opportunities you can gain from the change.
Before going further, I want you to understand that it is common for people to feel stress from the rapid changes. Also, not everyone gets excited about changes, and some may feel great anxiety over the changes. Any changes are stressful to many people, and the change-related stress is due to our survival. According to Taylor (2012, June 12), our “fight or flight” reaction is activated via our sympathetic nervous system when we encounter a change. The rapid emotional, psychological, and physical change caused by our sympathetic nervous system releases adrenaline, making us aware of our environment and reacting to the environmental changes by quick decision-making. Thus, this is an essential survival function for increasing our survivability. Unfortunately, the perceived “severity” of change can have too many negative impacts for some, resulting in anxiety. Thus, you may need to consult your physicians if you experience great anxiety from change.
Don’t spend your energy on changes that you cannot control. If you want to be resilient and prepared to change, you need to focus on things you can control by prioritizing the changes or mitigating and reducing the threats. That is how I deal with stress resulting from changes.
SWOT analysis is an excellent strategic planning tool to evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. SWOT analysis is a situational assessment used to reveal your strategic position. Business organizations often use this analysis to make strategic decision-making processes. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal attributes, while opportunities and threats are external attributes. Strengths and Opportunities are helpful attributes to achieving the objectives, while weaknesses and threats are harmful attributes to attaining the goals.
We will never have time to analyze all changes. Therefore, you need to focus on changes that will turn into a trend, general changes in situations or behaviors, potentially impacting you.
I learned about robotic process automation (RPA) technology in the early 2000s. I spent many hours preparing analyses or reports for management or auditors, and I was pretty annoyed that we had too many manual processes. I thought any automation could eliminate human errors and preparation time. At the same time, this technology can eliminate some of our work as accountants. I should understand the technology to capitalize on the benefits from the technologies, and I could avoid any threats resulting from the technologies. When I learned about robotic process automation technology, I decided to learn about it.
Quick & Dirty Analysis
Strengths
– I know a few programming languages (SQL, Visual Basic)
– I have financial modeling & Accounting Skills
Opportunities
– RPA is a potential trend to solve some of the existing problems I have
Weakness
– Lack of knowledge
– I do not have other programming languages such as Java or Python.
Threats
– RPA can eliminate my work
Considering any change that can solve existing problems, we must turn to a trend to find excellent opportunities. To identify a trend with potential prospects, we must be aware of our existing problems, and you can find such issues by contemplating them.
I CONDUCT A QUICK PROBLEM-SOLVING ANALYSIS when I see an issue bothering me. For example, I do not have enough time to analyze the reports. I take a piece of letter-size paper to organize my thought on the issue. I think about the root cause of the problems. Then, I need to find potential solutions to the problem, and I spend only 1-2 minutes on them. This process helps to develop solutions to many existing problems. Sometimes, I may not have an exact answer to the issues; however, I am prepared for any opportunities to solve the problem. In some cases, you may find a potential technology, but you may not have an exact use for the technology. I create mind maps for the new information for their possible usages.
You can find the issues that need to be solved online. I often like to read people’s reviews or questions online. For example, you can find technical questions by asking how to do things. Extreme users often complain about the missing functions from existing products. These reviews help us to identify unrecognized market needs. I keep some of those reviews because I may find solutions for the issues in the future.
In this era of rapid changes, we should prepare ourselves by analyzing and controlling everything we can control. Despite the stress from these changes, they can turn into great opportunities by identifying your strategic position through SWOT analyses. Finally, we must keep our antennae up to sense the existing issues to capitalize on opportunities from changes.
Reference
Taylor, J. June 12, 2012. Is Our Survival Instinct Failing Us? | Psychology Today. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201206/is-our-survival-instinct-failing-us