The Talk About Change

You know that one thing we all eventually have to face? That unavoidable, inevitable force?

No, I don’t mean death—though I’ll admit, that was my first thought too.

                                        I mean change.

For something so universal, it’s strange how little we actually talk about it. No one really teaches us how to deal with change. It’s just something we’re expected to figure out as we go. And yet, every single person—every business, every system—will, at some point, face the reality of change.

For the longest time, I thought of myself as someone who embraced change. But the older I get, the more I realize—I don’t actually like change. Not really. I like things to stay the way they are until they stop working. And honestly, I think most people feel the same way.

But lately, I’ve been thinking about change differently. Through the lens of trust.

Because when faced with change, we often react in one of two ways: fight or flight. Either we resist it or we run from it. And I used to wonder—why? Why is change so uncomfortable, even when we know it’s necessary?

I think the answer is trust. Trust in the process, trust in ourselves, trust that what comes next won’t be worse than what we’re leaving behind. The people and businesses that thrive aren’t necessarily the smartest or the most prepared—they’re the ones who trust change enough to move with it instead of against it.

But how do you get from resisting change to embracing it? How do you become the kind of person who doesn’t just accept change, but drives it?

I think the first step is understanding why change is happening in the first place. And that means empathetically questioning the way things have always been done. The goal here isn’t to be in the defensive, is to build trust and understanding about the said change.

Just because something has worked in the past doesn’t mean it’s the best way—or even the right way. Maybe it was the best option at the time, but does that still hold true today?

This is especially true in technology, where change is constant. What worked yesterday might be obsolete tomorrow. And yet, even in tech—an industry built on innovation—there’s still resistance. The question is, when should we push back on change, and when should we go with the flow?

Because not all change is good. Some changes are necessary, others are reckless. Some are carefully considered, others are driven by hype and fear of missing out. So how do we tell the difference?

When you work in business, you see how ideas get thrown around. Some of them lead to meaningful improvements. Others? Not so much. But whose job is it to question those ideas? When do you push back? And at what point does pushing back make you seem like the difficult one—the person who refuses to adapt?

And maybe that’s exactly what’s needed sometimes—to be the sane one in a world caught up in trends.

But that brings up another question—does it matter how things get done? Or just that they get done the right way?

If that’s the case, then what does “best practice” even mean? Who decides what the right way is? And what happens when yesterday’s right way is challenged by a new best way?

Is that what change is? A constant battle between what was right and what could be better?

Maybe that’s why our first instinct is always to push back—to protect what we know works. Because even if something could be better, it also could be worse. And how do you know which one it will be?

I don’t have all the answers. I’m still figuring it out.

But I do know this—being open to change doesn’t mean blindly accepting every new idea that comes along. It means being willing to question and be trusting—to ask whether the way we’ve always done things still makes sense. To step back and see the bigger picture.

And maybe that’s what growth really is. Not just knowing when to change, but knowing why—and trusting that sometimes, even when it’s uncomfortable, change is exactly what we need.