Advocating Change

Business

20 Oct

With the fast growing digital environment, it gets overwhelming for online marketers. So many changes that need to keep up on.

Before working in Human Resources, I was an Industrial Engineer first, and worked in a glass manufacturing company. I started from the ranks - timekeeper to facilitator. Being a trainor at 22, I found myself out of my depth when I was tasked to teach about Change Management or Continuous Improvement to assembly line workers who have been in their jobs for years, even decades. At that time, I can imagine what they were thinking - ‘How can this 22 year old know more about productivity than us?’ I learned the production process by watching videos provided during the induction program for new hires and visits to the plant. I was thick-skinned at that time and just dived into the training materials. I was talking to mostly men, in their 40s, and tried to make them listen to what I had to say. I guess that was my initial taste of being an advocate for change. Because young people see things differently, although I felt like an outsider, better yet a spectator.

WORK.
CONNECT.
FEEDBACK.
LEARN.
REPEAT.

Fast forward 27 years later, I am talking about change again, this time at a receiving end. I was learning about the business mindset, with women entrepreneurs that are similar minded as me. What makes it different this time is that I matured, and gained more life experiences. I appreciate the concept of change more than ever. What was missing in the past was accountability. You can’t change another person. Change must come from within. That’s how I feel about advocacies too. There has to be a moment in one’s life to confidently say - ‘I know that. I’ve been through it myself.’ Now, I am more comfortable to talk about things because of the learnings that I gathered through time.

What I am driving at is that regardless of age, we should experience and discover a lot of things, then get feedback and learn from it. Thus apply the change. How can we teach well if we don’t understand and experience it ourselves?

Yesterday was my learning/thinking day. We should find time for that in every stage of our business.