By Debbie Simpson, North East BIC
The word ‘change’ can conjure up thoughts of fear, dread and apprehension, which can often deter us from exploring new opportunities, because let’s face it, we all want an easy life, don’t we?
Workplaces in particular have undergone significant change in recent years due to the Covid pandemic, with attitudes towards independent and flexible working certainly changing. And who would have thought it? Change is a constant in the workplace, and it can take many forms such as technological, organisational, and cultural.
In my lifetime I have had the privilege of working for several organisations wearing a number of different hats, which has given me a great insight into change and being able to adapt.
Most recently, I’ve used these experiences to help me adjust to my new role as Business Adviser to BIC tenants, but it has also forced me to think about change in the workplace. Is it good or is it bad? In fact, we’ve talked about change and the different types of change at great length in the office, and I’ll tell you about my conclusion (and our conclusions) later on.
There’s always a starting point to these office chats and ours started with an office move around. Our cosy, comfortable and contented ensemble of staff and desks was interrupted by the introduction of a new team. New colleagues, which implies collaboration. New ways of working the way ‘they’ want to, having to re-think processes to ‘their’ standards, using the old brain cells to re-learn the systems. And more cups of coffee to make, more chit chat in the background and more opinions being verbalised.
To make matters worse, there’s been a change in funding streams which has resulted in the end of a programme I’d worked on for many years. Different management, different projects, different objectives. How would my brain cope? Quite well as it turned out.
My conclusion is – a change is as good as a rest! Our new team members settled in quite nicely, they have brilliant chat, and they make a canny cup of tea. The workflow is now seamless and although there have been challenges, we’ve all learnt to go with the changes.
We’re now a unified team, sharing our knowledge and our minds have been opened to new ways of working. The introduction of an innovative culture within a business can be revolutionary if you’re able to embrace change – and we have. We’re up for it. Throw it at us – we’ll catch it.
The BIC is a constantly changing organisation, but these changes have future-proofed the business and it’s proved we have resilience by the bucket load.
Continuously striving for improvement, being able to adapt, considering the environment and revisiting our mission and values is part of the BIC’s core ideals, which all comes with change. Acceptance. And prosperity.