We started off 2020 with a bang – literally. My son and I were in Fiji during a tropical cyclone over the Christmas break and it seemed the whole world was either burning or flooding. It was a scary start to the new year but I was glad it had started. 2019 was a tough year. Talking to clients and candidates, everyone talked about it being tough in terms of project timelines or project budgets (lack of) and the struggle of juggling work and home commitments. I feel many people got to Christmas and just let out a big breath. Shaking that off peeps – and let us embrace 2020 as a year of positive change and be thankful for a lot more in our lives than just “surviving till Christmas”.
Start something new like enrolling in that course you have been putting off. A number of my candidates are reducing their working week to 4 days and launching a mentoring or coaching business 1 day a week. Or it may be non-work related, like planning more fun things with your family. I finally got Jacob and I booked in to take horse riding lessons together this year. Stop talking about it and take action. It may even be doing something more about your environment – helping out on a Saturday at a local beach picking up rubbish, or helping plant trees. Whatever you have been putting off – make a start in 2020 to change things up.
In terms of work though – I am finding already that the market is moving in a positive way. There are a number of mergers happening with organisations, meaning roles for change practioners who have operating model and cultural change experience. There are a few large technology programs kicking off, and some more building moves and refurbishments. The breadth of change management projects is wide ranging which is exciting for the discipline.
And on that point – make no mistake people – change management is a discipline. It is a niche area of expertise and people have careers as change management professionals. In 2019 I talked to a large number of people who were taking side steps into Change Management – all from very complimentary former careers – either from HR or L&D or Communications. Change Management enables them to build out their repertoire of skills from being very siloed on a project into working on a breadth of activities and dealing with stakeholders they may not have had reason to speak too in the past. I am finding Change Management is becoming more in demand from all sizes of organisations and that is an awesome thing to see.
So go on – make a change, embrace the change and do what makes you happy. Peace out!