Making the Change, Step 1: Identify
You’re reading the first part of a five-part series. Be sure to read the others:
Change is rough. We’d all love to just get comfortable with our favorite people in our favorite house in our favorite city and only deal with our favorite thoughts or watch our favorite TV shows. Our lives would be so much easier if we didn’t have to worry about… change… wouldn’t they? Well, of course — if we’re already living the best lives we could possibly live. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone living a perfect life who hasn’t ascended to godliness, and I doubt you do, either (I don’t care what your local Miss Popularity says). As I like to say, life is change… so get used to it. 
In this five-part series, we’ll explore a broad framework for making any sort of significant change, whether that change is personal, corporate, or global in nature…
Step 1: Identify the change to be made
Rosalie is a young single mother working as an administrative assistant. Before her pregnancy, she was healthy and full of energy. Shortly afterwards, though, her marriage ended and she suffered a long bout of depression. Rosalie ballooned and her health began to deteriorate as she struggled to care for her infant. Now, she finds herself constantly tired, weak, and barely able to hold her baby.
Chuck is the CEO of Widgets R Us, Inc. Widgets R Us brands itself as “the number one producer of cogs, gears, and whatchamacallits for all of your machinated needs.” Unfortunately, the company has been experiencing a serious drop in stock value recently. The national economy is in a downturn, confidence in Widgets R Us is down, and its cogs, gears, and whatchamacallits just aren’t selling. To make matters worse, Chuck’s V.P. of Finance has just been accused of embezzling millions from the company.
Emma is a warm-hearted college student with a passion for helping the underprivileged. She has volunteered at soup kitchens and homeless shelters for a few years and has an idea that she believes will revolutionize the ways we charitably assist the poor. This is a big endeavor, and Emma (herself being a low-income student) doesn’t know how to implement her idea without having more resources at her disposal.
Identifying the problem is usually easy. What’s causing harm or distress to others or to yourself? What situations can and should be improved? Identifying the change may be more difficult. Some problems are more complex than others and may require multiple changes or changes which cannot be easily understood before they’ve already occurred. Part of the identification process includes becoming intimately familiar with the relevant situation. In other words, we must not only identify the change, but identify with the change. To bring this “down to earth,” I like to ask the famous five W’s — Who, What, Where, When and Why…
Who?
Who will be involved in making this change occur? (If you’re not one of them, you may want to rethink your stance.) Who will be affected by it, both positively and negatively?
What?
What, on a high level, do you want to accomplish? How can you best put this into words to describe it to others? (This will be important later.) What are some of the potential drawbacks to your desired change? Into what obstacles are you likely to run?
Where?
In what geographical area will this change occur? In what area of life will it occur?
When?
How long will the process take? Create a tentative schedule or timeline of any milestones you hope to achieve along the way. What kind of timescale are you looking at?
Why?
This question is the most important, yet the least frequently asked. Why is this change necessary? What is its larger purpose? Are you passionate about it? How passionate? In what ways will the change benefit yourself and others?
With the help of the local witch doctor, Rosalie learns that her health problems are related to obesity. She resolves to lose 50 pounds without the help of any pills or other drugs — in other words, the “hard” way. She lives alone and her baby certainly isn’t going to diet with her, so she’ll be on her own unless she asks a friend or coworker for support. Rosalie’s job requires her to sit at a desk all day; she will need to plan her diet and exercise routine carefully, or she risks a loss of motivation. She’s not given herself a deadline, but if she sticks to her strict plan, Rosalie should easily shed 50 pounds within a few months. Doing so will allow her to take much better care of her infant and improve her health in a number of areas.
Chuck meets with his Board of Directors (excluding the just-fired V.P. of Finance) to decide an appropriate course of action for Widgets R Us. They vote to immediately take on a new financial director, someone who is motivational and trustworthy. Additionally, they brainstorm ways to shine a new light on the company, a new way to market their cogs, gears, and whatchamacallits. Given the weakness of the economy, Widgets R Us will probably need to cut both prices and expenditures. Selling more products as well as innovating will raise its stock prices, at least in the short term. The process will take weeks to months, but it is clear that something must be done to preserve the company’s future.
Emma explores her options and decides to begin talking with local humanitarian organizations for help in implementing her idea. She hopes to eventually move to a location that is more in need of her change, but determines that it would be wise to test a pilot program first in an area with which she is familiar (her college town). The change will take weeks to plan, months to test, and years to finalize and expand… but Emma is confident that, in the end, thousands (perhaps millions) of lives will be changed.
The identification phase is abstract, but absolutely necessary for anyone who hopes to achieve real change. If Rosalie fails to identify and identify with a plan for weight loss, she will be unable to motivate herself to change. If Chuck fails to identify and identify with a plan for reviving his company, he will be unable to convince his Board of Directors to move forward on any of his ideas. If Emma fails to identify and identify with a plan for revolutionizing philanthropy, she will be unable to overcome the massive level of inertia standing in the way of global change. In Part 2, we’ll look at how to mold an abstract idea into a workable plan of action.
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