Resistance to change or lack of meaning?

Resistance to change or lack of meaning?

Is it resistance to change or simply a lack of meaning? This is a question we all need to ask ourselves - both as individuals and as organisations.

Let's start with what we all see at the beginning of the year and the dawn of autumn: our LinkedIn feeds filled with announcements of people jumping into new jobs and gyms full of gym-goers starting the second - or maybe tenth - new beginning of their lives. The phenomenon described above is as certain as the cycle of nature.

But why does this happen at certain times? And what does this tell us about change?

It's not resistance, it's a lack of meaning

Many people talk about resistance to change as if it were an inevitable force of nature - but you know what? It's nonsense. People don't really resist change. People are resisting irrelevance.

If someone wants to stay in the old, dull, stultifying dungeon of their (working) life, it's not because the winds of change are blowing too hard. It's because no one has managed to show them why they should care about potential change.

Think about it again: when you decide to start a new job or go to the gym in search of a new phase in your life, you're not just doing it for fun. Underneath it all is a need to find meaning, a need to feel that there is a deeper point to it all.

The same is true in working life. When workers are not enthusiastic about change, it is not because they want to hang on to the old way of doing things. It's because they don't see the point of change.

Change without meaning is like a gym card without use

Change in itself is neither good nor bad - it is inevitable. But the success of change is directly related to how well its meaning is communicated and understood.

Let's take a look at those who go to the gym to work out. Why do those who commit to change stick with it? I'm talking about the ones who don't disappear from the gym every year after starting in January or August, like ashes in the wind. Because they see that that change brings something valuable - health, energy, confidence, presence, etc.

At the deepest level, meaning is found both within and, above all, outside the self. The philosopher Frank Martela has described meaning and purpose in life as follows:

”The meaning of life is to make yourself relevant to other people.”

The 25-year-old supermodel is squatting because she wants to look her best at a wedding in Suomenlinna Castle next summer. That's the one she's been dreaming about for the first quarter of a century. Meaning starts with the self.

A 45-year-old parent (home role) and manager (work role), who is living the life of a rush-hour parent, Sal may want to drop 5-10 kilos from the treadmill to be more present for his family after a day's work. Too many years, a decade in fact, have been spent living as a dead man, a zombie in Finnish, at the wheel of a squirrel wheel and in the cramped confines of everyday life. Enough is enough! Meaning comes from the self and others.

The 61-year-old CEO of a listed company, who is bench-pressing, wants to ensure that he has at least 20 years of life left to see his grandchildren grow up and, through the government job ahead of him, to transform the global working world in a more sustainable direction, both humanly and economically. The meaning comes from other people and the world.

Change without meaning is like a gym card without use - useless. The desired change remains at the green grassless end of the gym on the starting blocks.