Adapting To The Changing World Requires More Than Shifting Perspective It Needs Transition

We live in an era where change happens so quickly and its effect is so unpredictable that leaves everyone with different experiences and new challenges to execute what they have learned. In the business world, change is a situation that happens to an organization and the people inside it. Change is external even though not many agree on it. To adapt to change is internal and consists of successfully transitioning from an old world to a new one. As evolutionary beings, we perceive this situation as part of the evolution process. According to the Integral Theory, evolution is not limited to the exterior forms of reality and change, however, evolution lies in the interior parts of reality and constitutes transition namely the development of culture and consciousness.

It is often said that Optometry is a regulatory profession, and whenever a change in the market occurs new regulations need to follow through. Transition in this situation remains the process everyone goes through to adjust to working with the new permitted scope. The change also occurs in the same practice when a manager leaves and a new manager replaces him and the staff needs to transition. Another example of the need to transition is the manager who is moving to a new position and his challenge would be to cope with the new workplace and new team.

Whatever the reason is, change is inevitable in the workplace, and failing to transition will result in a reduction in productivity. Because transitioning after the change is easier said than done, managers know that a shift in perspective is the first step but without a great deal of collaboration with the team transitioning is very difficult. Moreover, the complexity of challenges in the changing world increasingly calls for holistic and transdisciplinary approaches to coping with the new environment. A transdisciplinary approach to work requires close collaboration whether it is in the practice of serving patients and providing eye care or researching, working on new innovations, and executing them. This approach requires us to think in a way to integrate what we have learned in past with what we are developing.

Philip Weiss, author of Hyperthinking: Creating a New Mindset for the Age of Networks, emphasizes that in a world of integral leadership, along with shifting perspectives, continuing learning plays an important role in successfully transitioning through the challenges of change. Weiss points to Hyperthinking and its four dimensions:

• Hypershifting – understanding the paradigms we hold and learning to alter our perceptions.
• Hyperlearning – honing our mental skills through ongoing learning and experimentation.
• Hyperlinking – using new technologies in every aspect of our lives, thereby expanding our reach and impact.
• Hyperacting – an ironic term for attending to execution and creativity related to new technologies.

Central to all four Hyperthinking dimensions is collaboration to allow the execution of what we have conceived from what we have learned and allow progress and evolution to happen.