The Process of Change

The process of change requires both identifying the changes you wish to make, and development of a systematic plan for bringing about that change. Below you will find details on both of these steps, as well as an example.

Identifying Necessary Changes

Before you can change, you of course first need to know exactly what to change. Our systematic approach to the identification of these necessary changes uses the following four-step process.

Generate your ideal self.
Generate your self-image.
Compare the two to identify the gaps.
Prioritize the gaps based on likely costs and benefits and the likelihood of success.

For more on these steps, see the list to the right. For an example, go to the bottom section.

1. Ideal-Self

Your ideal self is a list of qualities you would like to have in the future. These qualities should be:

specific and concrete, such as what you know or can do, what you believe, or how you behave, and
oriented around a specific goal, such as career achievements or social goals.

Creating an ideal self may take some research, and feedback from others is usually helpful.

2. Self-Image

Generating a self-image involves going through the list of qualities identified for your ideal self and identifying which you possess and which you do not possess. And remember,

be honest and realistic, and
seek input from others.

3. Gaps

Analyzing the gaps between your ideal self and your self-image isn't quite as simple as it seems. In many cases it won't be as simple as saying "I need it and I don't have it." More often you will be saying, :I have some of it, but is it enough?" As before:

be honest and realistic, and
seek input from others.

4. Priorities

It's not wise to try to change too many things at once. Setting priorities is important. In deciding priorities, consider the following:

the cost of the change in terms of money and resources, time, and commitment,
the likely benefits of the change, and
the likelihood of success.

Proper planning and execution are important, but they don't perform magic. Most of us are not going to be astronauts or the lead singer of a rock band. As always,

be honest and realistic, and
seek input from others.

Planning

To have the best chance of success in your efforts to change, you need a plan that is concrete and detailed. It should include:

small, manageable steps,
monitoring of progress,
rewards for success, and
a support network.

1. Small Steps

Make large and intimidating changes manageable by:

setting concrete, achievable milestones, and
breaking down larger steps into smaller steps.

When setting milestones, ask yourself two questions.

Will I be able to tell when I have achieved this?
How will I know when I have achieved this?

If a step still seems intimidating, it probably needs to be broken down further.

2. Monitor Progress

Below are some techniques for monitoring progress.

Recording in a journal each day your thoughts, actions, feelings, and challenges.
In a notebook record each day any instances of new thoughts, feelings, or actions that indicate progress.
Seek feedback from others.

3. Reward Success

When rewarding yourself, consider both intrinsic rewards, such as pride in your accomplishment, and extrinsic rewards, such as treats or other prizes.

Acknowledge your hard work with feelings of pride and satisfaction.
Set up small rewards for milestones, such as taking a longer break or getting a nice coffee after a productive week.
Work toward a bigger, more significant reward for achieving a major goal, like a weekend getaway or a new electronic gadget.
Reward yourself with time for relaxation, like taking a nap, or going for a walk.
Choose rewards that support your goal; for example, if you're trying to exercise more, buy new workout clothes instead of food.
Make it a shared experience: If appropriate, share your reward with someone, like going to a play or concert with a friend.

4. Build Support

Even the best of plans can benefit from a little help from your friends. Here's a few considerations for maximizing the value of your support network.

Identify the steps in your plan where you are most likely to need help, then identify family members, friends, or coworkers most likely to be helpful -- they have the right skills or are just good at nagging you to get you to do what you need to do.
Cover those gaps by expanding your network to include communities or organizations that overlap your needs, either in person or online.
Seek out mentors from among those you identify as having achieved the goals you are attemtping to achieve.

Example

Scenario

I'm a young adult, with a high school diploma and a two-year business associate degree from the local community college. Since getting my degree I have been working as an office manager at a local construction company. The job isn't bad, but I feel I can do so much better if I could just polish up my math and computer skills. As it is, I feel unchallenged, and unfulfilled. As a result, I'm cranky all the time and have trouble getting along with and working with my fellow workers. I really want to do better, ideally become a business analyst, but so far my efforts at change have failed. I'm definitely ready to try this new approach. So, let's get started.

After a number of internet searches, and some discussion with some of teachers at the community college, I've come up with the following categories of characteristics for the ideal business analyst me.

Knowledge
Interpersonal skills
Communications
Critical thinking/problem solving
Commitment
Self-confidence

Ideal-Self

For my future ideal self, my research and feedback from others identified the following characteristics for the catgegories I had previously identified.

Knowledge
- Possesses a solid knowledge of the business analyst job skills, including math and computer skills such as database queries and spreadsheets.
Interpersonal skills
- Treats others with respect, good at working with others, good at conflict resolution.
Communications
- Good writing and reading skills, adequate speaking skills.
Critical thinking/problem solving
- Strong ability to analyze information and reach sound conclusions.
Commitment
- Strong ability to overcome challenges and remain committed when the going is tough.
Self-confidence
- Strong trust in own abilities, judgment, and skills.

Self-Image

Correcting my own perceptions of who I am with feedback from friends and family, I have come up with the following self-image.

Knowledge
- Some basic knowledge of spreadsheets. Weak math skills.
Interpersonal skills
- Weak social skills, poor at conflict resolution.
Communications
- Good speaking and reading skills, weak writing skills.
Critical thinking/problem solving
- Strong ability to analyze information and reach sound conclusions.
Commitment
- Average ability to overcome challenges and remain committed when the going is tough.
Self-confidence
- Weak trust in own abilities, judgment, and skills.

Gaps

Comparing my ideal self with my self-image gives me the following gaps.

Knowledge
- Need better spreadsheet skills
- Need to acquire database skills
- Need to improve math skills
Interpersonal skills
- Need to improve social skills, especially teamwork and respect
- Need to acquire conflict resolution skills
Communications
- Need to improve writing skills
Critical thinking/problem solving
- No gaps
Commitment
- Need to strengthen commitment and determination
Self-confidence
- Need to improve self trust

Priorities

The number of improvements needed is a bit high, and they can't all be done at once. More importantly, some of them require that I first address some of the others. For example, I need to improve my self-confidence and commitment before I take on any of the others or I am likely to give up. Also, some of these changes seem more important than others relative to the time and effort required.

Based on these considerations, here are my priorities in order of importance.

Knowledge
Commitment
Self-confidence
Interpersonal skills
Communications

For all of these priorities costs include both a commitment of time, as well as the potential for needing to spend money for training/education. The benefits of improvement are clear and significant for all of the gaps.

Knowledge was assigned the highest priority because it has the greatest risk of failure, that I might not be able to do it.

Steps

Among the achievable milestones I identified for acquiring the job skills to be a business analyst are the following.

Identify the specific math and computer skills required to be a business analyst.
Determine the methods for acquiring the needed skills, as well as any required resources and their likely costs.
If there are formal educational and/or training requirements for becoming a business analyst, identify providers and the methods/costs for enrollment.
Identify and recruit individuals for my support network.
Acquire all necessary resources and enrollments and begin the learning process.

The timeline I have established for accomplishing these steps calls for the first two to be accomplished within a week, and the third and fourth within a month. The final step deadline will be determined based on what is actually required.

Monitoring

To monitor progress, I intend to maintain a journal in which I will enter:

weekly the progress I've made on each step in my plan,
my feelings about the progress I've made,
any changes in how I feel about, or my commitment to, achieving my goal, and
any feedback provided by my support network.

Rewards

To help maintain my motivation, I plan on

Help

Reset Resources