3 Ways You Can Deal With Change at Work - The Muse

3 Ways You Can Deal With Change at Work - The Muse3 Ways You Can Deal With Change at WorkIts natural to desire a clear direction and sense of control in our careers. After all, the unknown can be intimidating, especially when it comes to your professional future. But while its certainly comforting to have specific instructions provided at work, a fixation on structure and a constant need for direction can limit your potential. Fear of the unknown can prevent you from taking risks that could elevate your success, such as pitching an innovative idea for a new project or starting your own business. Staying in your comfort zone doesnt allow for professional growth and keeps you playing small in both your career and life. Because the career-success trajectory rarely resembles a linear path, honing your ability to thrive within ambiguous circumstances is vital. Learning to not only navigate, but to also capitalize on the less clear-cut instructions and job responsibilities helps you become resilient. By building a tolerance for ambiguity, you can perfect the art of taking calculated risks that will assist you in adapting to ever-changing work environments, give you confidence in your decision-making ability, and render you more impervious to criticism. Here are three things thatll lead to greater tolerance when it comes to those ambiguous work issues. 1. Make Small BetsOne way to manage the daunting scale of the unknown is to break down risks into a series of experiments or small bets. Basically, you want to test the water before you jump in.If you are considering starting your own company, for example, a small bet might be keeping your day job while pursing a side gig on nights and weekends. Do this, and youre effectively managing your risk by measuring the success and sustainability of your new venture while maintaining a regular source of income with your full-time position.Another way to understand this concept is through iteration, which is just a fancy way of s aying youre adapting, building, or expanding upon an idea. The goal is to test theories quickly and rigorously, evaluate the outcomes, and then evolve, pivot, or scrap it. Not every idea is inspired and deserves comprehensive pursuit. If you are in charge of product design for your company, for example, iteration helps you sort through the good ideas, weed out the bad ones, and foster the spectacular ones. The same is true for marketing techniques sometimes, the campaign you develop is a complete flop, but the important thing is that you learn from the experience and incorporate your newly acquired knowledge into future projects.By trying out ideas on a smaller scale, you provide yourself the chance to evaluate how risky an idea is while simultaneously minimizing any potential negative impact in the event that it doesnt work. 2. Avoid Overreliance on PlansAmbiguous circumstances can be particularly scary for people who crave structure. And, its true that organization can lead to ef ficiency, but its also possible to over-optimize and become too dependent on the plans youve made and the ordnungsprinzip you abide by.When you make long-term career plans, you should be flexible enough to review, adapt, and change them as necessary. If youre too rigid, youre probably going to have a problem dealing with the random stuff you have no control over. For those with a Type A personality, crafting a five-year career plan seems methodical and logical, but it can provide a false sense of comfort and harm more than help. Things change, and the goals youve set yourself may not be achieved on the timeline you had hoped, or in the way you imagined. For example, maybe you accept a job with the promise of leading a new division thats set to launch in six months. But after one year theres still no progress. If youre too rigidly fixated on your five-year plan, you may continue to wait (and wait) for a promotion that ultimately never materializes, sacrificing years of your career an d earning potential in the process. Instead, an uncertainty surfer would be willing to roll with the punches and adapt, perhaps agreeing to move to a different department in the company that offers more upward advancement or make the leap to a new company that will allow you to achieve your professional goals. If you rely on one firm plan, and have your sights set firmly on that, youll undoubtedly miss opportunities that arise along the way just because they dont fit your career scheme. You may be working in a client-relations department when an associate at another company recognizes your talents for event planning and offers you a related role. Although it may not align with what you envisioned for your next job, if the position offers an opportunity for growth along with a great salary and a positive work environment, itd be shortsighted not to at least consider it. 3. Embrace the InevitableOne of the scariest things about accepting workplace ambiguity is the inability to plan f or the unexpected. And yet in life, things rarely go exactly as we think they will. Its impossible to anticipate when someones going to call in sick or when your teamberaters going to spring a surprise on you. You can really only plan for the fact that unpredictable things are going to happen.When the unpredictable things arent good, they, nonetheless, dont need to be crippling. By practicing negative visualization, an ancient psychological process intended to help you avoid emotional instability during stressful situations, you can learn to effectively manage your emotions when things do go south. Imagining negative possible outcomes (think worse-case scenarios) before they happen will enable you anticipate and navigate setbacks. If you fear getting fired, consider how you might react if this were to happen. What would you say? What would you do next? Youd likely formulate a plan that involves polishing your resume and using your network to secure interviews- a far cry from ending up broke and homeless, a dramatic worst-case scenario. The process works because itll empower you to assess circumstances rationally rather than reactively, thereby avoiding career-damaging hasty decisions. Youll often find that the worst you prepared for doesnt come close to representing the reality of the situation. Whether your supervisor has started asking you to completely manage your quarterly projects or youre keen on laying the groundwork for a brand new initiative, building a tolerance for ambiguity is a necessary job skill. The ability to work through assignments without supervision or explicit direction is an indispensable professional strength, and you cant survive a changing workplace without it. Photo of changing leaves courtesy of Shutterstock.