The ancient Athenian philosopher Heraclitus famously stated that “change is life’s only constant”. He may have said this more than 2000 years ago, but it has perhaps never been more true than it is today. Changes are not only inevitable, but successfully making the right changes at the right times is an important key to success. The magic of change lies in the hope it can bring in the midst of challenging times.

However, it is not only the right changes themselves, but the way we handle or manage these changes that often determines the success of these transitions. The way we process changes directly affects both our attitudes and our behaviour. In business, successfully transforming any organization is difficult, since essentially it is not the business itself, but the people involved that have to make and undergo the change. Especially when there are lots of people involved, transitions can be a sensitive process, since every individual’s emotional and psychological experiences regarding their own changes and transition process is unique.

As a company, it is important not to get lost in the changes themselves, all the while failing to carefully and sensitively manage this emotional and psychological transition by which everyone involved is affected on so many levels. Changes, in order to be considered true and genuine changes at all, first and foremost needs to take place in the hearts and minds of the people involved. They need to be equipped and empowered to apply the right coping strategies at the right time and in the right way, since without doing so, the entire change may sadly end up being for the worst.

Humans often tend to exhibit a natural psychological and physiological resistance to change. But at the same time, we can be quite resilient in successfully undergoing those necessary changes. Change management requires understanding people’s experiences of change and knowing what they require in order to fruitfully make the necessary changes. It is important to know what messages people need to hear when and from whom, when the optimal time is to teach those necessary new skills and how to coach people to adopt and demonstrate new behaviours.

It is vital people – whether it be managers, employees or even clients – truly embrace the change as an opportunity for renewal and growth. Here positive coping strategies such as affirmations, visualization, emotional support and practicing mindfulness play a vital role.

People possess and amazing resiliency and ability to recover from or easily adjust to change. The heart of change management is tapping into these inherent human abilities and positively channelling emotions and energies during those vital transitions in business and in life.