“You shook their world when you arrived. You weren’t what they expected.”

These words appeared on my FB feed recently.  While the words were part of a poem about a person, they resonated with me when thinking about change or new ideas or approaches. Inevitably change brings about the unexpected, whether the unexpected is conversations needed to be had, opinions surfaced, resistance met, acceptance or adoption embraced.

Sometimes the change we are implementing evokes a significant reaction from colleagues or others. One of the more difficult skills to learn in these situations is being able to deeply listen to the reaction, while not making it personal. I wish there was a short cut to learning this skill, but I am yet to find it and it seems to come with practice.